Acorns rally from 20-point Deficit; Share TCAL Crown
Morgan Hill – What a way to go out.
Down 27-14 at halftime at Richert Field Thursday night, Live Oak rallied to score 14 unanswered points and beat Gilroy 28-27 in the last meeting between the teams as league rivals.
After the game, Live Oak received even more good news. San Benito had beaten Tri-County Athletic League leader Palma 28-24. That meant the Acorns, with a 4-1 record in league, earned a third of the TCAL title and a berth in the Central Coast Section playoffs.
Up 28-27 with a minute left in the fourth quarter, Live Oak defensive lineman Eric Cifuentes sealed the Live Oak victory when he intercepted a tipped pass from Gilroy quarterback Chris Velasco on the Mustangs’ last-chance drive. “It was a dream,” Cifuentes said about the interception. “I play rugby, too, and it felt like a rugby ball when I caught it. Unbelievable. What an incredible feeling.”
When the final horn sounded, Live Oak fans poured out of the stands and onto the field, where they celebrated with the Acorns in the south end zone.
“Savor the moment, Enjoy the feeling and store it away,” Live Oak head coach Rick Booth told his team after the game. “And get ready to bring it all back tomorrow because we’re going to the CCS.”
When Booth finished, the team responded with chants of “CCS, CCS, CCS!”
“This is the greatest feeling in the world,” said running back Dustin Muhn, who had 180 yards rushing on 19 carries and a touchdown, “It’s never easy and this year there was definitely more pressure. But it’s all worth it now.”
On offense, it was the deadly Live Oak running tandem of Muhn and Kevin Abbott (21 carries for 143 yards, 3TD’s) who kept Live Oak coming back. The two combined for all of Live Oak’s touchdowns – and reached some season milestones.
“We have two great backs,” said running backs coach Scott Matthews. “Abbott went over 1,000 yards with his effort tonight and Dustin (Muhn) eclipsed 1,500 yards.”
The Acorns didn’t waste any time in the second half. To open the third quarter, Live Oak opted to onside kick, having benefited from a first-half last-play 15-yard penalty on the Mustangs that the referees decided to assess to the half’s opening kickoff. After the kick, the ball bounced off some Gilroy players and the Acorns recovered the ball at the Gilroy 31. Two plays later, Abbott ran 29 yards for a touchdown. Kevin Mounteer made the extra point to bring Live Oak to within 27-21 less than a minute into the half.
“I don’t agree with the 15-yard penalty,” said Gilroy head coach Darren Yafai, who argued the call. “They could just decline or accept it and instead, the ref said, ‘We’re going to assess it on the opening kickoff of the second half.’ So of course we know they’re going to onside kick. They’re kicking from our own 45.”
The Mustangs weren’t quite the same after that score. With 3:58 left in the third quarter, Gilroy tailback Justin Sweeney fumbled the ball and the Acorns recovered it at the Gilroy 28-yard line. Abbott eventually scored again on a 4-yard run with 33 seconds until the close of the quarter. Mounteer’s extra point gave Live Oak the 28-27 lead.
In the fourth quarter, Live Oak forced two turnovers, one of them on downs. Gilroy had one last shot to score after forcing the Acorns to punt with just over three minutes left. On third down of the series, Gilroy’s David Alejo hauled in a 16-yard pass from Velasco for first down. Velasco then hit Paul Gonzales for 13 yards to put the Mustangs at their own 45-yard line. But then Cifuentes dashed Gilroy’s hopes for a comeback on the next play. Velasco’s pass up the middle was tipped as soon as it left his hand and Cifuentes came up with the interception. Live Oak took over at the Gilroy 42 and wore the clock down to the end.
For the second year in a row, a three-touchdown night from Sweeney wasn’t enough to beat Live Oak. The senior also ran for a season-high 321 yards.
“I wasn’t sure we’d be able to do it. Mr. Sweeney is something special,” Booth said. “We’ve talked to the team all year about finishing. And the last two weeks they really stepped up and finished it off. There are times that we’re going to bend. But we didn’t break.”
At the beginning of the game, Sweeney started things off with a bang. At the 9:41 mark in the first quarter, he broke free for a 75-yard touchdown run that quieted the Live Oak crowd. On the Acorns’ ensuing drive Muhn brought the fans back to life again with a 57-yard run of his own, which brought Live Oak to the 3-yard line. Two plays later, Abbott’s 1-yard run tied the score at seven.
Gilroy scored back-to-back touchdowns to take a 21-7 lead halfway through the second quarter. Sweeney had 9-yard run with four minutes left in the first quarter. In the second quarter, Velasco faked a hand-off to Sweeney before hitting Gonzales for an 8-yard touchdown pass. Kicker Neil Martin converted his third PAT of the night to make it 21-7 Gilroy.
On the next Gilroy score it was Sweeney again, this time on a 95-yard run. But after the play the referees called the senior for unsportsmanlike conduct, which pushed Gilroy’s extra point attempt back to the 25-yard line. Gilroy missed the 35-yard attempt, and while the ‘Stangs still held a 27-7 lead, the point would prove to be the difference in the game.
“We hurt ourselves with some costly penalties,” Yafai said. “We had three 15-yarders in crucial situations.”
Before the half, Muhn brought Live Oak to within 27-14 when he escaped several tackles for a 60-yard touchdown run with 3:16 left until the half. Mounteer’s extra point made it 27-14.
