Live Oak boys soccer team avenges loss to Sobrato

It didn’t have the same tension as the first game, but Tuesday’s Sobrato-Live Oak boys soccer rematch was no less exciting.
Hard fouls, yellow cards and dramatic goals carried the afternoon at Sobrato where Live Oak avenged an earlier loss in a 3-1 win against its arch rival.
“From start to finish, our guys came to play (and) Live Oak came to play,” said Sobrato head coach Steve Arata. “It was fun to watch.”
Chase Vandenbrandhorninge  scored two goals, including a penalty kick late in the second half to put the game out of reach.
It was a fitting end as Vandenbrandhorninge had a penalty kick in the first go round between the two teams that was blocked in a 3-1 loss at Live Oak.
“The way we played last game is not the way we play,” Vandenbrandhorninge said. “We just had some unlucky cards from last time. This time, we had to come out and put a few in.”
In the last game, a couple of yellow cards opened up Sobrato’s game and then an Acorn red card prevented a comeback late.
In Tuesday’s game, just four yellow cards were handed out.
This time, however, even though Sobrato’s keeper Ryan Henner got his hand on the ball, it was just out of his reach to prevent from going into the net.
As much as they game went the exact opposite from the previous game, it started off almost play-for-play the same.
Live Oak went on the attack early and had several quality looks in front of the Bulldog net.
“We knew from the history of the teams that we needed to score first,” said Live Oak coach Ben Alvarez. “That was the idea. We created some opportunities, but unfortunately, the goal took too long to come.”
But as attack after attack was thwarted, it gave Sobrato more and more confidence.
As Live Oak’s offense got pushed further back, it allowed Sobrato to counter and eventually get quality looks of its own.
Finally in the 35th minute—just one minute shy of when Sobrato scored when the two teams met the first time—Justin Cisneros found the back of the net with a shot that would have scored big points in pinball.
The ball went off the Live Oak keeper’s hands, off the far post and finally into the net. That’s where the similarities stopped.
Live Oak didn’t crumble after the first goal was scored, but rather continued on the attack.
Finally, in stoppage time, Sobrato was called for a foul at the top of the box.
Vandenbrandhorninge took the free kick to knot the score 1-1 in the second minute of stoppage time.
“If we had went into half (down), I don’t know if we could have won that,” Vandenbrandhorninge said. “Putting that one in really helped out.”
That’s where the game stayed at the half. Out of halftime, Alvarez said he wanted his team to keep high energy going.
“I gave them a time line that between eight and 10 minutes we have to score,” Alvarez said. “We had to apply the pressure and put the numbers up and we had to score. Everyone went in with that mentality. You could tell, they were hungry.”
And for the first 13 minutes, the Acorns kept the attack going on the Sobrato end.
Much like it did in the first half, Live Oak’s opportunities came up just short.
In the 52nd minute, Vandenbrandhorninge went on the counter attack, but Henner smothered the ball before the Live Oak striker could get a quality look at the net.
One minute later, a free kick led to a look at a wide open net, but the shot was hurried and the ball sailed over the net.
After that failed attempt, Sobrato finally went on the counter attack and had its best looks of the second half.
In the 56th minute, Sobrato got in front of the Live Oak net, but the shot cleared the cross bar.
That sparked a second wind for the Acorns who go three quality looks at the Sobrato net.
Andrew Diaz got things started in the 64th minute when he took a shot that got deflected away from the net and out of bounds.
After a free kick out side the box that missed, Live Oak took a corner kick in the 65th minute that Luis Lozano chipped in to give the Acorns the lead.
“Luis has a tendency to come up (on the ball). That’s really good. I was really happy for him,” Alvarez said.
Up 2-1, the Acorns dropped back into coverage and began to hit Sobrato with a series of counter attacks.
“We had to make adjustments to try to get one back and at least get the scores even and (Live Oak) capitalized.”
Finally, in the 75th minute, those counter attacks led to a foul when Vandenbrandhorninge had a clear path to the net and was awarded a penalty kick.
He converted for the final score of the game.
Alvarez said he saw the keeper touch it and thought he was watching a replay of the previous game. But when the ball rolled in, all he could think was how happy he was for Vandenbrandhorninge.
“It was good for Chase. He’s been scoring a lot of goals between him and Diaz and it was good to see that mentality go all the way through,” Alvarez said.
Despite the loss, Arata said he was still proud of his team, especially his seniors who were honored at halftime.
“I’ve gotten to know them the past two years. … Their effort and tenacity of never giving up was showing.”
Sobrato will conclude its season on Thursday when it travels to San Jose for a 5:15 p.m. kickoff. Results from that game were not available by presstime.
Live Oak, meanwhile, picked up after defeating Sobrato to play Leigh on Wednesday and will conclude its season Thursday against Pioneer.
Results from those games were not available by presstime.