Live Oak High coach Tony Goble knew going into Wednesday
’s match with visiting North Salinas that there would likely be
conflict. After the Vikings battled the Acorns to a 2-2 tie just
two days earlier, Goble said he was ready for a confrontational
match-up. Sure enough, the mid-week showdown was marred by rough
play and trash-talking, most of it appea
ring to come from the North Salinas side. In fact, Goble didn’t
know just how bad the trash-talking got until after the match.
After Live Oak maintained its cool long enough to rebound from an
early deficit and pull off the 3-1 victory, LO assistant principal
German Munoz, who speaks Spanish, told
Goble the Viking players used Spanish profanities throughout the
contest.
Live Oak High coach Tony Goble knew going into Wednesday’s match with visiting North Salinas that there would likely be conflict.
After the Vikings battled the Acorns to a 2-2 tie just two days earlier, Goble said he was ready for a confrontational match-up.
Sure enough, the mid-week showdown was marred by rough play and trash-talking, most of it appearing to come from the North Salinas side.
In fact, Goble didn’t know just how bad the trash-talking got until after the match.
After Live Oak maintained its cool long enough to rebound from an early deficit and pull off the 3-1 victory, LO assistant principal German Munoz, who speaks Spanish, told Goble the Viking players used Spanish profanities throughout the contest.
Goble said Munoz spoke to the North Salinas coach after the match about allowing the Viking players to use profanities.
Goble also accused the North Salinas players of using racial slurs in Spanish during the match. LO has two African-American players.
But what really incensed Goble was what he called the one-sided officiating, which heavily favored the Vikings.
“You get three Latino refs from Salinas and it’s obviously biased,” Goble said. “I knew going in that (North Salinas’) style of play along with the officiating would be a problem.”
Goble said he would file a complaint with Peninsula Sports Management, which oversees the league’s officials but didn’t think it would do any good.
While the officials finally disqualified a pair of North Salinas players after administering both with two yellow cards for rough play, they allowed much of the physical contact to continue.
On one play, a North Salinas player appeared to intentionally kick the ball at a prone LO player’s head. On another, when LO’s Frechette screened a Viking player off the ball, he was shoved in the back and fell to the ground in full view of the head official without a whistle.
However, the same official did administer a red card to a LO fan on the sidelines later in the match.
During actual play, the Vikings struck quickly, taking a 1-0 lead on an Acorn mistake just two minutes into the match.
But LO came back a few minutes later to tie the game up 1-1 on Nick Mott’s header in a crowd off a corner kick from Bryan Place. LO had several other chances to get the go-ahead goal but couldn’t score.
“That was the same thing as on Monday,” Goble said. “We had our chances but we just couldn’t finish.”
The Acorns finally broke through in the second half on Anthony Avalos’ free kick that sailed untouched through a crowd and into the Viking goal for a 2-1 lead. LO added the icer on a goal by Hussein Abdullahi.
The Acorns improved to 12-0-5 overall, 5-0-1 in league, with the victory, and are scheduled to host Salinas today at 10am.
Next week, the Acorns play at Palma on Tuesday before hosting Gilroy on Thursday in a probably battle for first place in the league standings.
LO girls soccer
A pair of home victories this week kept the LO girls unbeaten in league play.
On Tuesday, the Acorns routed North Salinas 6-0 behind Michelle McDonald and Jenny Emick, who both had a pair of goals. Ginelle Bongiorno and Andrea Riolo, who came out of the goal to play forward, both added goals.
On Thursday, LO had a tougher time with Salinas, which battled the Acorns to a tie until McDonald scored a late goal to secure the win.
LO (6-6-3 overall, 5-0-1 in league) is set to host Notre Dame on Tuesday before playing at Gilroy in a much-anticipated rematch.
