Live Oak’s Chris Armstrong celebrates his interception and touchback with teammate Brandon Sorce (11) Friday during their game against Silve Creek.

Leigh, check.
Westmont, check
San Jose, Silver Creek, check and check.
Lincoln, to be determined.
Live Oak’s run is nearing its end with just three more game left on the schedule, and if any of them are a must win, Lincoln for sure is.
“This is a big game for us,” Live Oak coach Mike Gemo said. “They are defending champs of our league and they’re always up there at the top of the league and they’re coached well. Our kids are ready to go. They want the first league title that Live Oak’s had in BVAL.”
Live Oak opens a three-game road trip to close out the regular season, starting tonight at Lincoln. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. in San Jose.
And if the pressure of a potential league title weren’t enough, Live Oak running back Trevor Bearden is chasing history, getting closer toward etching his name as the most prolific runner in the Central Coast Section.
The two teams are the last remaining with no losses in league and both are playing well.
Lincoln still has to play Silver Creek before playing the combined 1-12 Gunderson and San Jose.
So if Live Oak loses this game, the Acorns will likely have just one chance at help from the rest of the league.
“There’s no easy game. This league is tough, it’s competitive and you’ve got to play you’re A game and put your big-boy pants on every game,” Gemo said.
The difference could come down to who makes the most mistakes. Gemo said turnovers will likely determine the outcome. Live Oak has been OK at protecting the football, turning the ball over 13 times through seven games.
Stats aren’t as complete for Lincoln, but the Lions threw nine interceptions through the first three games. Gemo said he isn’t counting on Lincoln throwing the ball away, but said his defense is going to need to play smash-mouth football and see if it can force the Lions to put a couple on the turf.
“I think they fixed that (the interceptions). I think that was a product of who they were playing, a little bit quicker teams,” Gemo said. “Coach (Kevin) Collins does a great job over there at Lincoln to fix the problems. I haven’t seen it that much lately.”
But if the Acorns pull off the win, the road toward a championship will get wildly easier on paper: 1-6 Gunderson next week and 0-7 Evergreen Valley the following week to wrap up the regular season.
However, the Acorns must get past Lincoln first and they will rely on their experience this season to help give them an edge tonight.
Live Oak at 6-1 overall has more than made up for its Week 2 defeat at the hands of Christopher by holding opponents to 15.8 points per game during a five-game winning streak.
“We’ve got better every week. Playing tough teams showed our guys that we’ve got to compete for 48 minutes,” Gemo said. “This is the next opponent in our way to try to win the league championship.”
Just one of those wins has come by a margin of more than eight points.
The Acorns’ defense is getting the job done and the Bearden led offense is putting up the points needed to take teams down.
Out of the last five games – since being held to less than 50 yards against Christopher – Bearden has recorded 300-yard rushing games three times. The only time he had less than 200 came against San Jose when he didn’t play the fourth quarter in a 34-6 blowout.
“We’re going to play our football game. Everyone in the world knows everything runs through Bearden,” Gemo said.
According to his yardage total listed on Maxpreps.com, Bearden is 116 yards away from breaking the career CCS rushing record.
Lincoln, meanwhile, has yet to give up a 100-yard rushing game in league play. But the Lions are susceptible to a huge run.
Against Willow Glen and Oak Grove, the Lions allowed a rusher to gain well north of 200 yards.
Likewise, Lincoln used a tough non-league schedule to prepare for the gauntlet of the Santa Teresa Division.
After falling to 0-3 in their first three games – two coming to BVAL A-league opponents – the Lions have been on a roll.
“They played some tough opponents at the beginning of the year and it showed them where they had to work. … They’ve worked hard and it’s paying off now,” Gemo said.
Lincoln went through the same tough two teams that propelled Live Oak to its 4-0 record and beat each by very similar margins.
The Lions beat Westmont 28-27 thanks to a missed PAT in the fourth quarter and had a fourth-quarter touchdown to defeat Leigh 19-14.
Live Oak beat Westmont 21-14 and Leigh 20-19.
In their three league games, the Lions have held opponents to a little more than 19 points per game and averages 28.7 points per game on offense.
Live Oak is coming off a game against Silver Creek where the defense did well containing drive-sustaining plays – shutting down the run game and keeping short passes in front of the defenders to prevent a prolonged drive. The problem came on haymaker plays where a deep pass or the read option would open up a huge gain. Those led to the Raiders’ three scores.
Lincoln will also be a team that can burn Live Oak with big plays on offense and it will be up to each player to know his respective job.
“We learned a lot making sure we get assignments down this week defensively,” Gemo said. “Lincoln has run the wing-T for years and years. It’s nothing new and you just got to play assignment sound football and make the tackle.”

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