It was the most lopsided El Toro Bowl in its nine-year history, and Live Oak accomplished that feat in the first half.
The Acorns jumped on Sobrato early and kept the pressure on as they captured the annual rivalry game 65-0 on Saturday.
“Our kids have been here before. A lot of our seniors have been here three years and they know what it takes to win an El Toro Bowl,” said coach Mike Gemo. “They just came out and executed the game plan.”
About the only thing Live Oak didn’t do was score a defensive touchdown.
The Acorns had six players score touchdowns. They blocked three punts. Scored a safety on a punt. They forced two turnovers and forced two more on downs.
Quarterback Erik Ornduff threw for 251 yards and four touchdowns on 12 of 14 passing. He also ran one in on a quarterback keeper for the first score of the game.
“It feels really good. Years later, we’ll see 65-0 and know we were a part of that. It feels good,” Ornduff said.
The Acorns had 413 yards of total offense while holding Sobrato to just 48 yards for the game and four first downs, one of which came on a Live Oak offsides penalty at the end of the game.
“We tried to find ways to get underneath—inside runs, outside runs, off tackles. We tried everything we could and we just could not get anything consistently going,” said coach Tony Holmes.
Live Oak officially wrapped up the South County Championship, having swept both Gilroy teams and Sobrato. The Acorns are now 3-0 heading into their bye-week ahead of the Mt. Hamilton Division start having outscored opponents 129-20.
“It shows how much work we’ve put in. Senior year, we finally got (the South County Championship),” Ornduff said.
This is the Acorns’ best start to a season since going 5-0 to kick off the 2012 season.
Sobrato, meanwhile, drops to 0-3 to start the season and will likewise go into a bye week before kicking off its Santa Teresa Division schedule.
“Maybe there will be some teams where we’ll match up (well) against and it will give us an opportunity to get some wins in,” Holmes said. “For right now, you know, we have to find ourselves. We have a lot of soul searching to do.”
Sobrato quarterback Matt Bolino did make some big plays with his arm, throwing for 88 yards, including three plays of more than 15 yards. Michael Sutter caught four passes for 62 yards.
For the Acorns, Paul Lomanto caught four passes for 119 yards and two touchdowns and also ran in one from one yard out for one of two official carries. He had two others—including a touchdown run—called back by penalties.
“He makes my job easy. I just give him the ball and I know he’ll get a touchdown,” Ornduff.
The Acorns had six touchdowns called back because of penalties, including two punt returns in the fourth quarter.
Live Oak set an El Toro Bowl scoring record in the first half putting up 42 points.
The previous high was 28 points in a game, scored by Sobrato in 2011.
This was also the highest scoring El Toro Bowl, beating out the 2011 game, which combined for 49 points.
Ornduff threw for 191 yards in the first half, throwing 8-of-10 and three TDs.
Lomanto caught three passes for 120 yards and two scores in the first half.
The game didn’t start as lopsided, however.
Bolino hit Sutter on the second play of the game for 36 yards with an Acorn defender draped all over the receiver.
And when the drive stalled, Sobrato’s defense stepped up, forcing the Acorns to punt after just four plays, highlighted by a Jonathan Dzek sack of Ornduff.
After Live Oak scored its first touchdown, the Bulldog defense stepped up again, with Dzek hitting Ornduff hard, forcing a fumble and the first of two Live Oak turnovers of the day.
From that point, however, Live Oak’s offense was denied points just one more time. It came near the end of the first half when Lomanto fumbled near the goalline, giving Sobrato the ball on its own 3 yard line.
Special teams proved the difference in the first half as Live Oak blocked three punts, turning that into 14 points.
Eugene Nfon and Heffernan teamed up to harass the Sobrato kicker twice, and both times it led to scoring plays for the Acorns.
“They gave max effort and every play for this. This is what gets them on the field and they make a lot of plays doing it,” Gemo said.
The first came in the opening quarter, which led to the first touchdown of the day.
Live Oak got the ball on the Bulldog 32 and ran nine plays, capped off by Ornduff punching it in from one yard out.
The next came in the second quarter, when Eugene batted down a kick, giving the Acorns the ball on the Bulldog 45.
It only took one play for Ornduff to find Lomanto for a 45-yard score and a 21-0 lead.
The duo had previously hooked up for a 61-yard touchdown pass at the end of the quarter and a 14-0 lead going to the second.
After Live Oak went up by three scores, the Acorns forced a Bulldog fumble, which they recovered on the Sobrato 26.
Two plays later, Ornduff found Isaac Nfon for a 15-yard touchdown pass and a 28-0 lead.
Ornduff threw a fourth touchdown 4 minutes later when he found Mitch Conforti for a 17-yard score and a 35-0 lead.
Jacob Ryder 1 minute later nearly had an interception returned for a touchdown, but the score was brought back on a block in the back penalty.
Ryder, however, wouldn’t be denied.
On the first play from scrimmage, he went 17 yards for a touchdown and a 42-0 lead.
Live Oak will not get ready for Leigh 7 p.m. Oct. 2 to open league play in San Jose.
“We’ve got a long road ahead of us in that Mt. Hamilton League, it’s just the beginning for us,” Gemo said.
Sobrato, meanwhile, will prepare for Westmont at home 1:45 p.m. to open league play.
Live Oak junior varsity wins 15-12
Logan Steed sealed the win with an interception at the end of the game with less than two minutes in the game in a 15-12 win over Sobrato.
Cole Davis scored the go-ahead touchdown at the end of the fourth quarter for the 15-12 margin of victory after a 2-point conversion.
Did you get photos of this year’s El Toro Bowl that you want to share? Were you and your friends in the crowd cheering on your team? Send your pics of your game experience to
sp****@mo*************.com
to be displayed online. Please include a name for attribution.
