For the second week in a row, the Live Oak High football team
just couldn
’t get anything going and shot itself in the foot in its 23-8
loss to Hollister-San Benito Friday. Live Oak (7-2 overall, 2-2 in
TCAL) suffered its second loss in as many weeks after Palma ended
the team’s winning streak at seven. With the win, Hollister-SB
stays perfect in league (4-0, 7-1-1 ov
erall) and is assured of at least a tie for the league
title.
For the second week in a row, the Live Oak High football team just couldn’t get anything going and shot itself in the foot in its 23-8 loss to Hollister-San Benito Friday. Live Oak (7-2 overall, 2-2 in TCAL) suffered its second loss in as many weeks after Palma ended the team’s winning streak at seven. With the win, Hollister-SB stays perfect in league (4-0, 7-1-1 overall) and is assured of at least a tie for the league title.
The Acorn defense shined in the first half, putting up a strong wall that Hollister needed a quarter to figure out. But the LO offense and special teams let the team down.
Twice in the first quarter, Live Oak dropped punts and the Haybalers got the ball back. LO coach Glen Webb said the muffed punts were costly.
“One in a game is bad enough,” Webb said Friday. “But two is an 80 or 90 yard swing.”
As the first quarter came to a close, the Haybalers punted the ball only to have the Acorn returner drop it.
This exposed another problem for the Acorns: They couldn’t stop the Balers’ up-the-gut surge.
Three straight times, Baler running back Chris Brigantino punched the ball up the middle for a total of 21 yards setting up the Baler’s first score of the night on a Tim Lango 14-yard touchdown run with 10:20 to play in the second quarter.
The defense continued to play strong, but the Balers quickly wore them down.
With two minutes to play in the half, the Balers started an eight-play, 55-yard drive that ended with a Charles Thompson one-yard run for the touchdown.
Live Oak would never make up the deficit.
“Our defense did a good job in the first half,” said running back Kevin Abbott. “Our offense just couldn’t get anything going. Mistakes happen and you can’t always prevent everything from happening.”
The Acorns didn’t make a first down until the final eight seconds of the half when Abbott ran for 21 yards and Dustin Muhn caught a David Iseman pass for 14 yards.
Things didn’t improve much in the second half.
In their second play from scrimmage, Thompson found a hole in the Acorn line and ran for 64 yards and another Baler touchdown. After missing the PAT, San Benito led 20-0.
While the Balers would tack on a 20-yard field goal for a 23-0 lead in the fourth quarter, the Live Oak defense held its ground after that. And, the Acorn offense sprang to life and began to put together some promising drives, but they all came up short until Iseman connected with Jared Koblis for 67 yards to break up the shutout bid. After converting the two-point play, Live Oak appeared to have momentum on their side.
LO will travel to league rival Gilroy on Friday for their last game of the regular season. The Mustangs are coming off a 32-8 loss suffered at the hands of Salinas Friday. Both teams share a 2-2 league record.
