Live Oak’s season came to an abrupt 42-20 end Friday night, losing to Pacific Grove in the opening round of the CCS Division IV playoffs.
The No. 2 Acorns couldn’t stop the No. 7 Breakers (10-1) offense despite solid numbers from Erik Ornduff and Trevor Bearden.
“It was a great season for these kids,” said coach Mike Gemo. “They will go down as some of the best ever here at Live Oak. They went undefeated in league and that’s something they can hold their heads up high for.”
Still, after the game, it was a tearful Gemo addressing his players and thanking them for a strong season as they gathered at the endzone one last time in 2013.
He thanked Bearden, himself overcome with emotion, and announced the record setting running back was named the Most Valuable player in the Santa Teresa Division.
Bearden finished the game with 191 yards to bring his CCS career record to 6,221 yards over four years. He finished the season with 2,744 yards.
“First of all, Trevor is quite a runner. He’s a special player for Live Oak,” said Pacific Grove coach Chris Morgan. “We knew going in that winning this game you’ve got to stop him. He’s a beast. We just kind of got our guys to understand (they had) to rally to him. We had to get guys to the ball because one-on-one he’s going to break tackles.”
But it was another running back who took the spotlight away from Bearden. Jake Speed had 118 yards on 12 carries with four touchdowns.
Speed had three of his touchdowns in the second half, which proved to be the difference.
Live Oak and Pacific Grove started things off in a shootout, with both teams scoring on their first two possessions through the first minute of the second quarter.
The Acorns came out swinging going on a 70-yard drive led by Bearden, who picked up 67 of those yards, including the final three which he punched in for a touchdown.
Pacific Grove showed it too could sustain a long scoring drive, going 75 yards thanks to two big plays by Tyler Hallock and Luke Lowell, picking up 35 and 30 yards, respectively, on single plays.
Speed capped things off with a four-yard run. Lowell converted a 2-point play to give Pacific Grove an 8-7 lead.
But Live Oak had another answer, going another 70 yards with big runs by Bearden and the passing of Ornduff.
He hit Cole Campi for a 16 yard pass play to move deep into Breaker territory then finished things off with another 10-yard play to Campi for a touchdown and a 14-8 lead.
It was the last lead Live Oak held, watching as Pacific Grove scored 34 unanswered points to put the game away.
“Yeah, we got bogged down, we stopped making some plays, lost our footing on a couple and, you know what, we just didn’t make the plays and they did tonight,” Gemo said.
Through the first quarter, Pacific Grove never faced a third down. The first time the Breakers did was on the first play of the second quarter, and they converted it with a seven-yard touchdown run by Kennan Selbicky.
Pacific Grove faced just three third downs in the entire half, and it converted them all, including scoring touchdowns on two of them.
The second score came after Live Oak turned the ball over on downs and looked to have a stop on its own 40. But Lowell threw a 40-yard pass to Forest Compton for a touchdown and a 22-14 lead where the score stood at the half.
Live Oak was able to move the ball through the game, but after the first quarter, couldn’t turn it into points.
“We finally got a stop. I’m sure that first half was fun to see as a spectator. You know it was going back and forth, back and forth. We told them, let’s get a stop finally and hopefully we’ll get a little distance on the scoreboard,” Morgan said.
The Acorns first drive of the second half stalled in the red zone leading to a missed field goal.
They later turned the ball over on downs at mid field and again on the Breakers 10.
All the while, Pacific Grove scored on all its second half possessions until midway in the fourth quarter.
The scoring stopped when Jonathan Freitas stripped the ball from Jason Leach, which was recovered by Damien Phelan on the Breaker 5.
Leach, who came into the game with 1,249 yards rushing, was held out of the first half and didn’t have much of an impact in the second.
Ornduff made the turnover pay when he punched the ball in two plays later from one yard out.
Live Oak never got the ball back. Pacific Grove simply ran out the clock by gaining three first downs.
“That’s a good football team and they played hard all 48 minutes and I tip my hat to them,” Gemo said.
Live Oak finishes the year 9-2 overall and the Santa Teresa Division champions, the first outright league champs since 1996.
