A last-second comeback victory in the first round of the Skyhawk
Conference playoffs on Wednesday earned the Live Oak High rugby
team a berth in the Northern California playoffs. Live Oak beat
host Aptos 20-19 on a penalty kick by Erik Cifuentes with no time
remaining.
A last-second comeback victory in the first round of the Skyhawk Conference playoffs on Wednesday earned the Live Oak High rugby team a berth in the Northern California playoffs.
Live Oak beat host Aptos 20-19 on a penalty kick by Erik Cifuentes with no time remaining.
Trailing 7-0 early on, LO scored 17 unanswered points to close the first half with a 17-7 lead. Live Oak’s points came off of tries by senior co-captains Ben Frates and Dustin Vertin, and junior Cifuentes, who also added a conversion. Dustin Muhn had an apparent try called back after he inadvertently stepped on the dead-ball line, voiding the five-point score.
As the second half got under way, Aptos found its game again and was able to take a 19-17 lead with only five minutes left in regulation on two tries and a conversion. But the Acorn ruggers pulled together and simply would not quit. As Aptos was under heavy pressure inside its own 15-yard-line with less than a minute to play, an Aptos player was guilty of illegally playing Mark Pimentel without the ball, and referee Bruce Carter signaled a penalty for Live Oak. Cifuentes calmly slotted the kick between the uprights from a difficult angle.
The win clinched LO a spot in the NorCal tournament set for the weekend of April 23. Final seeding will be determined today as LO takes on conference champion Silicon Valley in Sunnyvale at 11am.
