Loss drops Live Oak to 5-4 on the season with powerhouse Oak
Grove coming up in season-finale
San Jose – Friday night started out well enough for the Live Oak High football team.
On a trick play, Kevin Abbott completed a 32-yard pass to Jeff Mounteer on the game’s first play.
Now on the Lincoln 48, the Acorns moved 15 yards on three plays and appeared to have the same momentum they had after beating Pioneer 15-14 the previous week.
Then the trouble started.
Abbott fumbled inside the 35-yard line and the Lions swarmed.
After recovering the turnover, Lincoln had a deep pass play of its own – a 53-yard bomb that took the Lions to the Live Oak 12. Four plays later, Lincoln led 6-0.
Live Oak went on to lose 41-13.
“The offense did a good job,” Mounteer said. “Without the turnovers, it would have been a fair game.”
Before the game, head coach Rick Booth said his team needed to contain the Lions and not give up the big play.
The Acorns’ defense managed to keep Lincoln from exploding on every play, but did yield four plays of more than 30 yards.
In the first half, two of the big plays eventually led to touchdowns, but in the second half, the big plays put the game out of reach.
Down 26-13 at the start of the fourth quarter, Live Oak fumbled on the Lions’ 49. After an 11-yard run, Lincoln senior quarterback Tarik Hakmi completed a mid-ranged pass to Jegjeet Sidhu, who turned it into a 40-yard reception for a touchdown.
Sidhu caught the two-point conversion to put the Lions up 34-13.
The biggest weapon against Live Oak was the use of Christopher Mendoza, who racked up 115 yards on the ground and collected an additional 79 receiving yards.
“We were not able to stop No. 11, Mendoza,” Booth said. “He is a good, quality running back. He is fast and strong.”
In all, the Lions tallied 416 yards. Live Oak had 240 in total offense.
“The offense did a good job at moving the ball,” said quarterback Timothy O’Rourke, adding that turnovers ultimately hurt the Acorns’ chances.
Mounteer also said that some missed plays on defense allowed Lincoln to gain extra yards.
“It was not necessarily that they had speed, we also have speed,” Mounteer said. “We just missed some tackles.”
Lincoln featured a steady diet of sweeps and up the gut plays to tack on two additional touchdowns before the half.
Live Oak put together one successful drive late in the second quarter, running nine plays for 65 yards in four minutes and 48 seconds. The drive was capped off with a 20-yard pass from O’Rourke to Mounteer with 56 seconds to play in the half.
With the score 18-6, following a failed two-point attempt, the Lions attempted to use the remaining 52 seconds to make a stab at one final score.
Hakmi led the charge, driving 60 yards on four plays, including a 31-yard completion to Sidhu.
On the Live Oak 20, Hakmi completed a short pass to Mendoza, who nearly went the distance before being tripped up inside the 1.
As Mendoza went down, the ball was jarred loose. Although it appeared as though the fumble was caused by the ground, the call and the ball went to the Acorns.
Deep in its own territory, Live Oak was satisfied to run out the clock and head into the locker room down 18-6.
The Acorns came out swinging in the third quarter, driving 73 yards on 11 plays, capped off by a one-yard run by Victor Kalata to cut the Lions’ lead to 18-13.
But the Lions returned the ensuing kickoff to the Live Oak 37, setting up an eight-play drive with Mendoza rushing for the final yard and the 26-13 lead.
The final score of the game came midway through the fourth quarter with Lincoln’s Daniel MacHuca running two yards to finish a 40-yard drive and putting Lincoln up 41-13.
The Acorns will finish their season on the road against Oak Grove which is undefeated at 9-0 overall and 6-0 in league play.
O’Rourke said that in order to upset the Eagles, the team is going to have to show that it wants to win.
“We have to come out and play hard,” O’Rourke said. “We have to come out hard (and) we have to hit hard.”
Junior Varsity
Trailing 14-0 at the half, the Live Oak junior varsity football team came from behind twice to tie Lincoln 22-22.
Billy Van Aken provided the entire Acorn scoring, knotting the score initially at 14-14.
Midway through the fourth quarter, the Lions found the end zone and went up 22-14 following a two point conversion.
With 1.8 seconds left on the clock, quarterback Nick Priedite connected with Van Aken for a 28-yard touchdown pass. Priedite ran the ball in to complete the two-point conversion.
Live Oak improves to 7-1-2 overall and 6-0-1 in league.
