For the second time in the past three seasons, the Live Oak High
boys soccer tesam has claimed the Tri-County Athletic League title,
clinching it with a 1-0 victory over visiting Hollister-San Benito
in the regular season finale. The TCAL championship capped a fine
regular season campaign for the Acorn boys, who are ranked No. 2 in
the Central Coast Section and have compiled a 15-1-5 overall record
(8-1-1 in TCAL) this season.
For the second time in the past three seasons, the Live Oak High boys soccer tesam has claimed the Tri-County Athletic League title, clinching it with a 1-0 victory over visiting Hollister-San Benito in the regular season finale.
The TCAL championship capped a fine regular season campaign for the Acorn boys, who are ranked No. 2 in the Central Coast Section and have compiled a 15-1-5 overall record (8-1-1 in TCAL) this season.
“That’s obviously a great accomplishment for the kids, especially this year with three of the six teams being good and Palma being not bad,” LO coach Tony Goble said. “We knew going in it would be tough and we did it. Now it’s (time for) CCS and there’s a new energy.”
Indeed, the LO boys and the Acorn girls, who clinched their latest in a long line of TCAL titles the day before, are looking ahead to the section playoffs, which begin on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.
Both teams earned opening round home matches with their league title status, and will learn the rest of the details of their postseason fates – including overall seed, opponent, and date and time – at today’s CCS seeding meeting.
In Tuesday’s match, the last-place Haybalers put up surprisingly strong resistance against the high-powered Acorn attack but Casey Mott’s first-half goal off a throw-in set play would be all LO would need.
Meanwhile, the top-ranked Acorn defense, led by Nick Mott, Rodney Spencer, Hassan Abdullahi, Brian and Michael Place, and Anthony Razouk, among others, shut down the Baler offense.
“Defensively, we played well – very tight,” Goble said. “We didn’t make any mistakes.”
The LO defense has 13 shutouts this season and has allowed only nine goals in 21 matches.
Meanwhile, the LO girls team (9-6-5 overall, 7-0-3 in TCAL) had an eventful week even after clinching the TCAL title on Monday.
In the regular season finale at Hollister-San Benito on Wednesday, a match that ended in a 1-1 tie, the Acorns found themselves up against a few overzealous referees, according to LO coach Tony Vasquez.
After LO scored a first-half goal by Lena Marsh to take a 1-0 lead, the officiating got crazy, Vasquez said.
First, the officials disallowed a pair of LO goals, one after the celebration had already commenced. Then, the officials began verbally chastising Acorn fans during the match. And, finally, the officials gave the Balers a PK on a disputed play with just minutes to play that resulted in a goal by Rose Vandenberg that tied the match.
On that play, according to Vasquez, LO’s Jamie Hickey and Lena Marsh were both ejected, as was Vasquez when he quaestioned the call.
“It got pretty much out of control,” Vasquez said. “The referee was lost.”
However, Vasquez said the officials were confused about which LO players had been kicked out of the mkatch afterward, meaning Marsh didn’t have to serve a traditional one-match suspension.
But Vasquez said he decided to voluntarily sit out of yesterday’s non-league match against visiting Leland just to be sure he wouldn’t miss any playoff matches.
Against Leland, which is coached by Vasquez’s brother John and with whom LO shared the CCS Division I title last season, the Acorns won 2-0 in a playoff tuneup.
For LO, Marsh scored on a PK and Jenny Emick scored on an assist from Marsh for the victory.
Vasquez said his team should have won by six goals but the match was a perfect warm-up for postseason play.
“This is a different style of play,” Vasquez said. “In the TCAL, it’s kick ball, and they run at you, while with this there’s a style of play like in CCS. I always schedule one game late in the season against a team from San Jose. It’s a good way to get used to playing a different style of soccer.”
