Shannon Rauschnot’s hat trick led a scoring barrage by the Live Oak girls soccer team against Pioneer, as the Acorns won 8-0 on Tuesday.
Five Live Oak players joined Rauschnot in scoring as the Acorns kept their hopes at a league title alive as they enter the final game of the season.
Live Oak stayed in the mix for a Mt. Hamilton Division title with the win and now needs a little help from some other teams.
Leigh was in first place heading into the day, and had a one-goal lead late against Sobrato. The final wasn’t immediately available.
If Leigh and Branham both won — which they were expected to do playing Sobrato and Willow Glen, respectively — then Live Oak would need to beat Leland Thursday and have those two teams tie to clinch at least a share of the league title.
“Now it’s our goal to win our last game to try to get in that first place for league,” Rauschnot said.
But the Acorns know that playing well is going to be key as they enter the CCS tournament.
“I would rather take the momentum of playing well going into the playoffs than a higher seed,” said coach Tony Vasquez. “I feel like if we can keep playing this way, it doesn’t matter if we play home or away, I feel like we have an opportunity to do something special in CCS.”
Meanwhile, Live Oak needed a win to keep a title scenario alive, regardless of how the other two teams did, and the Acorns delivered in a big way.
Rauschnot’s hat trick was her first as a varsity player, beating her previous single game best of two, which she did twice last year.
“It was more my team. I wouldn’t have gotten it if it weren’t for the good passes,” Rauschnot said.
She netted goals in the seventh, 11th and 33rd minutes of the game, propelling Live Oak to a 4-0 lead at the break.
Her goal in the 11th minute happened thanks to Alissa Pham who’s shot was blocked, but not corralled by the keeper, allowing Pham to control the rebound. That allowed her to give a soft-touch pass to Rauschnot who had nothing but open net in front of her.
Pham scored in the 25th minute, taking advantage of Pioneer’s keeper venturing too far up in the box.
Pham finished with a goal and two assists. The goal allowed her to maintain her team lead in goals for the season, remaining one ahead of Rauschnot’s nine.
“I wanted us to score early to so we could let some of these other girls get some playing time and rest some of our injuries. I thought our girls came out with some fire today,” Vasquez said.
In the second half, Pioneer made more of a foray into the Live Oak zone, but were unable to convert.
Macey Linder was solid at net, but needed just two tricky saves to preserve the shutout. The others were soft shots that she had little trouble with and the defense came away with some strong stops of its own.
The back line led by Morgan Salzwedel, Sophia Barker and Madison Lagorio, didn’t allow much to get past them.
Meanwhile, Live Oak capitalized on the solid defense with counter attacks that netted four goals in the second half.
Salzwedel found the back of the net with a header off a corner kick in the 55th minute and a 5-0 lead.
Sarah Jensen followed a short time later, dribbling the ball up to Mustang keeper and put a shot just under her arm in the 62nd minute for a 6-0 lead.
Bella Apolina made it 7-0 when she shot one past the keeper in the 70th minute with a tough angle shot.
Holly Hopwood made it 8-0 in the 80th minute with a solid strike.
Live Oak will take the field for the final regular season game Thursday 3:15 p.m. at home against Leland. A win will assure the Acorns will finish no worse than second place. A win coupled with a Leigh loss or tie against Branham give Live Oak at least a share of the league title.
