What is it about long streaks, winning and losing, that they so
often require extraordinary feats to end? For the Live Oak High
football team, it took the program
’s best defensive effort in six years, along with a second-half
offensive explosion, to exorcise the demons conjured up through two
and a half seasons without a win.
What is it about long streaks, winning and losing, that they so often require extraordinary feats to end?
For the Live Oak High football team, it took the program’s best defensive effort in six years, along with a second-half offensive explosion, to exorcise the demons conjured up through two and a half seasons without a win.
The Acorns heaved aside their 24-game winless streak with a resounding thud in a 28-0 domination of visiting Alvarez at Richert Field on Friday night.
Controlling both sides of the ball from the get-go, Live Oak displayed a physical presence it has not shown in years, according to Acorn head coach Glen Webb.
“It’s true that we’re noticeably bigger and stronger and faster than we’ve been the last several years,” Webb said.
Nowhere was that more obvious than on the defensive side of the ball, where Live Oak forced Alvarez into seven turnovers – including three interceptions and four fumbles – scored a touchdown off one of the picks, and held the Eagles out of Acorn territory until the final, meaningless, offensive series. Alvarez only managed 130 yards of total offense.
“We did a lot of good things defensively – we got a defensive shutout and a defensive score,” Webb said.
In fact, Webb said that the Acorn defense’s overwhelming performance, which set the tone the entire game, was the best he had seen from his team since 1998. That was the year Live Oak held Gilroy to zero first downs and minus-78 yards of total offense. Impressive company, to say the least.
It was a brilliant start to the celebrated return of Acorn defensive coordinator Rick Booth, who came back this season after taking some time off during the height of the football program’s struggles.
Live Oak’s dominant defensive performance was led by senior safety Andrew Cummins, who picked off two of the three passes that Eagles sophomore starting quarterback Adrian Estrada attempted, and returned one of them 14 yards for a fourth-quarter TD. (Live Oak’s Jared Koblis picked off the other Estrada pass attempt.)
Cummins and the Acorn DBs were stout in their run support, too, crowding the line of scrimmage to pressure the Alvarez ground attack after obliterating the Eagles aerial ambitions.
Exhultant relief etched in his face after the game, Cummins reflected on the agony of last season’s futility and the challenge to every Acorn’s intestinal fortitude such an extended string of futility presented.
“It’s hard to lose every single game, but last year nobody quit and this (year’s) team really believed we could do it,” he said.
All the defensive success, which included a sack by senior defensive lineman Bryson Teixeira, secured the field position battle for the Acorns from early in the game to the final horn.
But Live Oak’s offense couldn’t immediately take advantage, despite several plum opportunities in the first half.
A first-quarter Eagle fumble gave the Acorns the ball at the Alvarez 26, and Live Oak drove to the two-yard-line before stalling. A 23-yard field goal attempt by kicker Nick Bowden was no good.
The Acorns got another shot at the Alvarez red zone on their next possession after Teixiera’s sack. Taking the ball at its own 31, Live Oak assembled a 12-play, 51-yard drive that reached the Eagle 11 before bottoming out on a fourth-down incomplete pass.
And, Live Oak got its final first-half scoring shot after Koblis’ interception at the Eagle 35. But that drive ended with another missed field goal – a 35-yarder with 51 seconds left before halftime.
Webb blamed the first-half struggles on the season-opening yips brought on by a host of factors, including the inauguration of a new season before the home crowd, high expectations and an untried, though senior, quarterback in David Iseman.
“In the first half, we were almost wound up too tight,” Webb said. “At halftime, I told them that you can have a great offensive effort and if you can’t convert it doesn’t mean a thing. We talked about calming down a little bit and executing some things.”
An execute they did in the second half, taking advantage of more fine field position to tally three offensive scores.
On the Acorns’ first possession of the second half, they mounted their longest scoring drive of the night after taking over at their own 44. On the sixth straight run, senior running back Doug Porras zigged through a tunnel in the Eagle defense en route to a 19-yard TD and the lead with 6:24 to play in the third quarter.
Porras led all rushers with 50 yards on eight carries, while Acorn senior teammate Dustin Muhn added 47 yards on 13 carries.
After the teams exchanged fumbles later in the third quarter, Live Oak took over at the Alvarez 45 with just 26 seconds left in the period, then scored on senior receiver Shaun Standridge’s 11-yard run two and a half minutes later. Iseman completed a pair of passes to senior tight end Tim Abbott for 21 yards during the drive, and finished his evening completing 6-of-15 for 72 yards.
Live Oak got another score midway through the fourth quarter on Cummins’ interception and TD return with 5:55 to play, then turned another Alvarez fumble into a seven-play, 32-yard scoring drive, capped by sophomore running back Victor Kalata’s five-yard sprint around left end with just 2:13 to play.
After the final play, two Acorn players tried to sneak up behind Coach Webb with a barrel of ice water but Booth ordered them back to the Live Oak sideline.
“This is one win,” Booth told them. “This doesn’t mean a thing.”
Booth’s point was well-made, but this was a victory that surpassed the vagaries of a single season. This was a win that did indeed mean something to more than a few people, players, parents and fans alike.
There among the celebrating Acorns on the Richert Field turf was Live Oak alum Steven Conner, who had endured two full winless seasons at his alma mater and now plays at Gavilan. Conner had an enormous smile on his face and raced around congratulating everyone. For him, the hated streak was over and no one would have dared tell him that it didn’t mean plenty.
