SEASIDE
– Live Oak kept pace with Seaside Friday night in the first
half, but things started to fall apart in the final quarter of the
43-12 loss.
SEASIDE – Live Oak kept pace with Seaside Friday night in the first half, but things started to fall apart in the final quarter of the 43-12 loss.
Live Oak was down by just 13-6 going into the half despite a steady blitz that was part of an overall strong physical package delivered by the Trojans. For the most part, Live Oak found itself out matched against Seaside. But Live Oak was still able to put together several quality drives.
“We were playing with them,” said Live Oak coach Glen Webb. “We scored a lot of points tonight, but we scored some for them. It was a physical mismatch that we were forced to play with. We shot ourselves in the foot a couple times. If we get rid of the mistakes, we are playing with a good team. The kids are a lot smarter now than they were a quarter ago.”
With the exception of a couple faux pas in the fourth quarter, Live Oak. Although the Acorns drop to 0-3 on the season, the team is only one game behind Salinas, Palma and North Salinas in the Tri-County Athletic League standings.
“The offense moved the ball well,” Webb said. “The offensive line was playing against an eight or nine-man front, and the team was still able to hang in there and make some plays happen. There were a few things to be optimistic about.”
After Seaside scored first on a six-yard run by John Rivera with 9:09 left in the first quarter, Live Oak came right back to start the second quarter with a touchdown. The Acorns moved the ball down the field, and quarterback Steve Conner was able to get into the end zone for his first of two rushing touchdowns from one yard out. The extra-point attempt was no good.
“We came out flat,” said Seaside coach Alfred Avila, whose squad is 3-0. “We broke down on the assignments we’ve been working on all week. They weren’t attacking the ball like they normally do.”
In the second quarter, the Acorns had a good chance to score again after Andrew Cummins came up with a nice strip as the runner was falling down. Cummins ran the ball back to the Spartan 44-yard line, but the Acorns were not able to score.
Seaside scored a couple of field goals before the half to go up 13-6. The first one was a 30-yarder by Aaron Caruthers. With 40 seconds to go, Live Oak tried to see what it could do with its running game.
But the Acorns turned the ball over, and Seaside was able to capitalize with a mammoth 46-yard field goal from Seaside’s second kicker Jose Zambrano.
Coach Avila recruited a couple soccer players to kick for his team, and it paid off. Live Oak has had trouble finding a place kicker this year, although Zachary Frates has shown a strong leg while drop kicking.
In a similar fashion to last year’s matchup between the two teams in which Live Oak was up by a touchdown at the half, Seaside came back to win with a solid second-half performance.
Live Oak started off the the third quarter strong after Eli Coreas’s 32-yard kickoff return. But Conner found himself in trouble and tried to flip the ball to open receiver, but Laurence Walker stepped in front and ran the ball back 65 yards for the score to put Seaside up 20-6 with 10:54 left in the third quarter.
“Coach Webb gets the most out of those kids like he did tonight, said Avila, an 11-year coach, who helped turn Seaside High into an area powerhouse in the last five years. “We wore them down. Without the mistakes it would be really close. The score doesn’t indicate how well they played.”
Live Oak answered right back, scoring on Conner’s one-yard rush with 4:46 left in the third quarter to close within 20-12 after the two-point attempt failed.
The Acorns touchdown was setup by a nice double pass. Conner found cousin Shaun Stanridge, who hit Adam Reza down the left side line for 34-yards.
Reza, a converted defensive end playing his first game this year as receiver, caught seven passes for a 100 yards during the game.
“I like their quarterback,” Avila said. “He’s tough. The receivers catch the ball well. But they can’t run the ball like they used to.”
Going into the fourth quarter, Live Oak was down 23-12. Seaside recovered the ball in good position on a high snap, and Walker scored the 13-yard touchdown catch.
Seaside received a three-flag play to setup another touchdown. The referee accused the Acorns of piling on to the quarterback. The second flag came when a player allegedly kicked a flag. When team captain Miguel Ayala came over to ask what the original penalty was for, the ref threw the third flag.
After the referee dutifully marked off each of the three penalties, the Trojans, 45 yards later, were in prime position for a score.
“They were supposedly trying to keep a lid on the game,” Webb said. “But it was a hard-fought clean contest. It didn’t seem like the behavior of either team was going south. I wasn’t there to hear what they heard. But at the same time, the kids have to learn it is not a court of law. It is a dictatorship, so the kids have to keep there mouth shut.”
The Spartans capped off the scoring with a one-yard run with 58 seconds left.
“I’m a little shell shocked about what happened in the fourth quarter,” Webb said. “I’ve been around football for a long time, but this is one of the nicest teams of the best individuals from top to bottom. Everybody played, and everyone got their feet wet. We need to regroup and play a good game next week.”
The Acorns will play next Saturday at North Monterey County. Game time is 2 p.m.
