Live Oak exercised a couple of demons Friday night with a 52-20 win over Monte Vista Christian.
First, was avenging a loss to MVC two years ago where the Acorns fell by three points.
Second, and the biggest, was a playoff win drought that goes back to 2007 when Live Oak reached the Medium Schools championship game.
“It means we’re headed in the right direction and we can play with just about anybody in CCS,” said coach Mike Gemo.
The Acorns have some work to do now if they expect to return to the title game. They will next travel to Palma in a week to take on the No. 1 seed in the Open Division III playoffs.
Still, there was time to revel in the win.
Finally back from injury, Jacob Ryder rushed for 155 yards and four touchdowns.
“He’s just another weapon for us. He makes plays happen and he loosens up defenses so everyone else can help make plays
After his third score of the evening—which came in the first quarter—Gemo was the first to meet Ryder on the sidelines, slapped his hand and said, “It’s nice to have you back.”
“It means the world. I always battled injury through high school and it just felt good to be back and ready for the playoff game,” Ryder said.
Ryder had scoring runs of nine, five, 34 and 10 yards and had 108 yards rushing after just the first quarter.
But he wasn’t the only one.
Cole Davis went for 80 yards and a touchdown with another 45 yards receiving on three catches.
Quarterback Jonathan Singleton threw for 136 yards and a touchdown, overcoming a shaky start to have a strong playoff debut.
Singleton was 10 of 19 passing with an interception that got returned for a touchdown.
Gemo said he was proud of how Singleton responded after the interception.
“You know, he threw that pick 6 but he stayed in there and kept going and we’ll play next week, that’s all I can say,” Gemo said.
He was 5 of 13 in the first half, but came out 5 of 6 in the second half with a touchdown.
“It’s the way we spread out the ball: We can run the ball, we can pass the ball, play action, spread it out,” Ryder said. “We were doubted coming into this after losing so many seniors. We’ve had a great season so far.”
And then there was the defense.
Live Oak forced three turnovers, including two forced fumbles and an interception. Those turnovers turned into 21 points for Live Oak, including 14 in the second half.
The Acorns stopped Monte Vista Christian five times on fourth down.
“A lot of it was Coach Dean,” said Alex Cornejo of Live Oak’s defensive coordinator. “He’s very good at calling plays and reading what they do. Our team then comes together in the huddle and say we got this. That’s how it happened.”
They pitched a second half shutout and didn’t allow the Mustangs past the Live Oak 25.
Most importantly, despite giving up 356 yards passing, Live Oak surrendered just 25 yards on the ground, holding dynamic freshman back to just 10 yards on three carries.
The game was fairly close for the first half when the teams went in to the break with Live Oak leading 28-20.
“We were in a dog fight with them at half time, but we knew a lot of it was our mistakes,” Gemo said. “Once we cleaned them up we knew we could pull away from them.”
The Acorns then came out in the third, rattled off three touchdowns and Monte Vista couldn’t answer.
Live Oak came up with a stop on fourth down and went 61 yards the other way, with Singleton connecting with Zach Heffernan with a 25-yard touchdown pass.
Cornejo stripped Darren Selck after a catch to put a halt to the Mustangs’ second drive of the third quarter. The ball popped out and Cornejo went up the field to give the Acorns another look at the endzone.
“It was a huge momentum shift for us because if we got the ball, we were obviously driving on them and they couldn’t stop it,” Cornejo said. “We had a lot of time of possession.”
And Heffernan got a chance to get his second TD of the night when he threw a 12-yard pass to Garrett Cardona for a 42-20 lead.
“It’s fun to watch because Zach used to be a quarterback and he hates when people make fun of him for not being a quarterback any more,” Cornejo said. “It’s fun watching him a throw touchdown and celebrating.”
Then a heads up Nathan Garcia picked off Devon Daich when he tipped a screen pass and brought it back to the MVC 10.
Ryder needed one play to put Live Oak up 49-20 and that was all the Acorns needed.
Morgan Salzwedel put the finishing touches on the game with a 24-yard field goal.
Live Oak got on to the board on its first possession, with Ryder finishing off a nine-play, 57-yard drive with a nine-yard TD run and a 7-0 lead.
But on the very next play from scrimmage, Daich found Selck wide open along the Live Oak sideline for a 64-yard strike to tie the game.
Monte Vista Christian nearly took the lead on its next possession, when the Mustangs were knocking on the door from the Live Oak 5.
But Holden Lukin fumbled after catching a pass, with the ball recovered by Eric Payne who took it back 80 yards before being brought down shy of the end zone.
Ryder turned the reversal of fortune into seven points when he went five yards for a 14-7 lead.
That lead went to 21-7 after Ryder needed two plays to go 73 yards with a 34-yard TD run to finish things off.
Monta Vista Christian had its best drive of the night to answer, going 46 yards on seven plays with Daich hitting Selck for a 17-yard touchdown pass.
The Mustangs nearly tied the game at 21 on the next play from scrimmage when Jackson Collins intercepted Singleton and went back for a score. But the PAT went wide right and Live Oak kept a 21-20 lead.
Later in the quarter, Live Oak responded with a 62-yard drive with Davis going the final 19 yards thanks to a hard block from Ryder up the sideline.
Live Oak will now get ready for the No. 1 seeded Palma who is coming off a 55-20 win over Saratoga.
Palma enters the game 9-2 overall with its only losses coming against teams with a combined 21-1 record.
The game will be played at Rabobank Stadium in Salinas 7 p.m. Nov. 18.
