LO nearly pulls off another upset
APTOS — Live Oak’s unbeaten streak in boys soccer has reached 19 matches, but the Acorns won’t be able to build onto it until next season.
Their stirring 2010 campaign ended in perhaps the most unsettling fashion Saturday in the Central Coast Section Division III quarterfinals. The No. 11-seeded Acorns squandered a 1-0 lead against No. 3 Santa Cruz, then lost 4-3 in penalty kicks.
The outcome goes down as a tie for both clubs, but the Acorns (9-2-11) could have come away with more at Aptos High’s Trevin Dilfer Memorial Stadium.
“We pretty much were in control the whole game. That’s what makes it hard to swallow,” coach Tony Goble said. “We went into it excited, and I thought we outplayed them. But it just didn’t go our way.”
Live Oak was coming off a stunning 1-0 upset of No. 6 Sacred Heart on Wednesday; the lone goal coming on a header by Alejandro Diaz.
A similar play put the West Valley Division champions on pace for another shocker Saturday. They struck in the fourth minute when Ubaldo Lopez headed home a Ben Hartl pass that sailed over the penalty area.
Hartl, a sophomore, also assisted Diaz’s score Wednesday.
“That was a big way for us to start the game, but we kind of went to sleep after that,” said Goble, who wrapped up his 11th year at Live Oak. “We stopped playing offense. We went into a shutdown defensive mode.”
With Cesar Arellano and Hartl controlling the center against Santa Cruz’s talented midfielders, the Cardinals (12-7-2) were forced to work the ball outside. That worked well for Live Oak — until Santa Cruz forced a corner kick in stoppage time.
Yosef Richardson, a 5-foot-6 freshman forward, slipped away from his defenders and headed in the cross from Fillimon Richardson, making it 1-1 at halftime.
“I felt good about what we were doing. I thought they were in trouble against us before that corner kick,” Goble said. “I was very disappointed to see them score on us like that. We practice corner kicks every day. No one was within five yards of that guy that scored.”
Santa Cruz, which finished second in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League, was on the defensive for most of the second half. The Acorns created several scoring opportunities but could not finish, a problem they had early this winter.
Unlike regular-season contests, this one went to penalty kicks after two scoreless overtime periods. The Cardinals prevailed behind goals by Slater Meehan, John Chronpoulos, Diego Pio and Fillimon Richardson.
Live Oak made three shots and missed two.
For Goble, one of the toughest parts of the loss was finding out whom the Acorns would have faced — No. 7 Carmel, which stunned second-seeded Terra Nova, 2-1, Saturday on Terra Nova’s home field.
Thursday, Santa Cruz will meet Carmel in a semifinal played in Gilroy.
“I’m not saying Carmel’s a bad team; they’re pretty good. But they’re a team I think we could have beat,” Goble said. “It was still a great year. No one really expected much from us, and we could have made it to CCS finals.”
Live Oak will move up to the Santa Teresa Division next season complete will all but four players from this year’s roster: seniors Dylan Frechette, Adolfo Canela, Jorge Arellano and Eric Scwegler.
