Live Oak dominated visiting Serra High School, the No. 10 seed,
on Tuesday, but had only a 3-2 win to show for its effort in the
first round of the Division 1 Central Coast Section playoffs.
Live Oak dominated visiting Serra High School, the No. 10 seed, on Tuesday, but had only a 3-2 win to show for its effort in the first round of the Division 1 Central Coast Section playoffs.
The No. 7 Acorns will move on in the CCS playoffs to face No. 2 Gunn, who defeated No. 15 Oak Grove 3-2 ,on Saturday in Salinas at 2 p.m. thanks to two quick goals to start the game.
After a one-season hiatus from the playoff, the Acorns returned determined to cause some damage like they have done so well in the past. The team broke out its traditional yellow hair dye that many of the players donned for the playoffs. The gold hair complimented the green uniforms that the Acorns wore – well it almost did anyways.
Evan twins Hussan and Hussein Abdullahi sported the orange-hair look. Although coach Tony Goble said it would take a lot more than just getting to the playoffs for him to dye his hair – like winning the title.
Coiffeur Kris Mott, who has been dying his hair for all his four years with the Acorns, was in charge of making sure most of the team was properly adorned.
“It’s been kind of a tradition,” said Mott, who’s new blonde hair won’t win any beauty awards. “You just kind of slap it on and massage it out. You don’t really need a comb. Sometimes I had to apply it more than once for some of the guys.”
Live Oak scored two goals in the first five minutes after catching Serra out of position. Hussein Abdullahi crossed to Sergio Avila. Avila headed it in past the Serra goalie, who claimed he was interfered with.
Hector Lopez scored the second goal unassisted after a defender appeared to have cleared out a lose ball.
“The shot hit the back of a defender, and I got the rebound and put it in,” Lopez said.
Live Oak’s speed paid off to set the stage for the game.
“The second goal we were out of place,” said Serra coach Enrique Aparicio. “But I am not sure if the first goal really got in, but I didn’t really see it. “Live Oak was moving the ball well and was quick on the outside. Offensively, their counter attacks were really good.”
The Acorns knew they needed to come out strong to start the game, Goble said.
“Our pace was at a different level,” Goble said. “We knew going in that they have a couple good forwards and their offsides where somewhat slow. That is where our goals came from right away. That is pretty much our game plan.”
The Padres looked like they were confused early on as Live Oak moved the ball down field at will.
“We weren’t ready to play from the very beginning of the game,” said Aparicio, who has lost to Live Oak three times in recent years. “We came out a little flat footed. It is hard to turn the game around after being down 2-0. They had more opportunities than we did. We needed more time.”
Serra’s Paul Celenpano countered 10 minutes into the game with a ball that goalie Nick Rauschnot got a hand on. But it had to much back spin and rolled into the net.
Avila scored his second goal which was setup by a nice cross from freshman Garette Frechett through the middle. As it turned out that would be the winning goal as neither team was able to score in the second half although the Acorns had a free kick called back because of offsides.
Two minutes before the half, Ryan Angell put in Serra’s second goal on a defensive breakdown by the Acorns.
“We made a couple mistakes,” Goble said. “One ball wasn’t cleared, and one goal came on a counter attack. To give up a goal with less than a couple minutes before half is tough.”
The Live Oak defense, which has recorded 16 shutouts this year, anchored by Kris Mott, Andy Cunningham and Steven Johnson once again came up big.
“We had a couple of mistake, but after that we came together and played solid,” said Cunningham, who is still nursing a sore ankle. “Defense has been our main stay this year. We need to keep it together throughout the playoffs.”
Live Oak kept up the pressure in the second half despite a couple Serra free kicks with less than ten minutes to go.
“A score of 3-2 looks like it was a war,” Goble said. “But we had control of the game until about the last 10 minutes.
The Acorns controlled the tempo, outshooting the Padres 13-5.
“We didn’t have to make many adjustments offensively at halftime because we were all over them,” Goble added. “We had looks all day long. It was there. I told them we had to play mistake free. If you leave a team around long enough, anything can happen.”
