Morgan Hill – The Live Oak and Sobrato High School football
teams participated in separate scrimmages over the weekend to tune
up for the football season.
Morgan Hill – The Live Oak and Sobrato High School football teams participated in separate scrimmages over the weekend to tune up for the football season.
On Saturday Live Oak took on San Jose’s Silvercreek High School, at Silvercreek, and Sobrato hosted Branham, from San Jose.
While there was no score kept in either game, there were some standout moments and some spectacular plays.
Sobrato Scrimmage
Senior wide receiver and defensive back Jo Jo Anaya had a great game in the secondary scooping up one of the two forced fumbles by the Sobrato Bulldogs, and returning it for what would have been a touchdown.
“Our defense played very well,” head coach Dan Brown said. “Jo Jo would have returned that fumble for a touchdown … He swooped and scored, he was gone.”
The “swoop and score” is a drill the Sobrato secondary regularly practices, however in a scrimmage, the rules are changed for practice purposes and a fumbled ball is ruled dead.
“We had excellent pass rush lanes with the defensive line putting pressure on their quarterback in numerous occasions,” Brown said.
Again, the rules are changed in scrimmage, and neither team played the quarterback live, in order to prevent injury.
Still, Sobrato’s offensive line protected junior quarterback Erick Levell who was pressured only once all day.
“A two-way starter Michael Mira, senior, played well on both sides of the ball as offensive guard and nose guard.
“Both quarterbacks were accurate in 80 percent of their passes,” Brown said.
The rushing game was led by senior Steven Guiterrez.
Tony Zizzo broke an inside run for about 50 yards, then two plays later Levell ran an around end for the touchdown.
“Overall we got a lot of our miscues out,” Brown said. “Branham is an A-league team.”
All three units performed admirably, Brown said, with the only negative being Sobrato’s goalline series.
For Brown, the standout player was Anaya on both sides of the ball.
“It was a learning experience and we have improved immensely,” he said. “Our depth has definitely improved.
“It was nice for the first four-year graduating class to play on their own home field to play in front of their own fans,” Brown said.
The Bulldogs take on three defending non-league opponents in their first three games, Santa Teresa at 1:30pm Sept. 1 at Santa Teresa, Pacific Grove at 1:30pm on Sept. 9 at Live Oak, and Seaside at 7pm on Sept. 14 are
Combined the three teams were 31-7 last year, and all three are returning league champions.
“It’s a definite measuring tool for us to see where we’re at going into the start of the season,” Brown said.
Live Oak Scrimmage
Kyle Hennings had an interception, and Steven Rodriguez had two touchdowns.
Various sweepers had good runs including Jeff Roberts who ran the ball well, and Matt Cummins who had nice runs and a good catch, head coach Jon Michael Porras said.
As for defense, linebacker Garrett Webb had a good outing, applying pressure and chasing down runners.
“I still think we have a lot of work to do,” Porras said. “I was pleased, but not satisfied, and it looked good after we watched the game film.
“We have to fix a lot of the mistakes and then we’re going to prepare for Saratoga.
“They were just happy to be hitting someone else … it’s been a long couple of weeks.”
