All week, he told everybody that would listen.
Like it usually is, Gilroy-Live Oak football game would be a
tight one, GHS coach Darren Yafai insisted.
All week, he told everybody that would listen.
Like it usually is, Gilroy-Live Oak football game would be a tight one, GHS coach Darren Yafai insisted.
“It’s always like this,” he said. “I kept saying whoever scored last was going to win.”
Unfortunately for the Mustangs, Yafai was right.
Two plays after a tipped interception return, Acorn sophomore running back Kevin Abbott scored on a 12-yard touchdown that gave Live Oak a 28-21 lead with just over three minutes left.
The Mustangs provided some drama at the end, but were denied four straight times inside the Acorn 10 as the clock wound down, and the final score held up
With the seven-point victory, Live Oak (8-2/3-2 TCAL) clinched a playoff spot and rides into the postseason with momentum.
With the loss, Gilroy (7-3/2-3 TCAL) limps into the postseason with a two-game losing streak and the prospect of hitting the road for the first round.
“Mental mistakes killed us again tonight,” senior cornerback Shea Lemos said. “We’ve got to get back to the Mustangs we used to be. This isn’t us.”
After eclipsing the season total with five turnovers in last week’s 32-8 loss to Salinas, the Mustangs turned it over three more times.
If there was one bright spot on the night it was Gilroy junior tailback Justin Sweeney, who set the all-time tri-league (TCAL, MBL, MTAL) record for regular season rushing yards. Needing 154 yards, he ran for 181 on 32 carries to finish the season at 1,661, adding three touchdowns for good measure.
“Justin Sweeney is as fine a back as this league has ever seen,” said Live Oak head coach Glen Webb, an LO defensive coordinator for two decades. “He has a combination of extraordinary balance and extraordinary speed.”
It was small consolation for the Mustangs, though.
The game was back-and-forth from the very beginning. On the third play of the night, Gilroy quarterback Peter Mickartz connected with Sweeney for a 66-yard touchdown. The Acorns answered right back, though, with an 11-play, 70-yard scoring drive that tied it up.
Gilroy’s first blunder of the night came on a bungled punt attempt. The next one came early in the second when Live Oak linebacker Calvin Ressler jumped right in front of a Mickartz pass at the Mustang 15.
One play later and Acorns’ running back Dustin Muhn was in the end zone for his second touchdown of the night. A missed extra point kept the lead at 13-7.
In the first half, the Mustangs were churning out plenty of yards – they outgained LO, 168-132 – but just kept making costly errors. Two plays after a 19-yard pass from Shea Lemos to Jorden Newton, Sweeney fumbled it away at the Acorn 39.
“I think we played some pretty good football today,” Yafai said. “We were just hurt by some untimely mistakes.”
All that went wrong in the second quarter, though, seemed to turn in Gilroy’s favor in the third.
To start the half, GHS safety Sean Velasques recovered a kicked-around squib kick at the Live Oak 23. Four Sweeney runs later and just like that the Mustangs were in the lead again.
Then the Acorns, who gained just 11 yards in the third quarter, were denied by the Gilroy D for the second time on 4th-and-short. Two minutes later, Sweeney was coasting in for a 36-yard touchdown and the Mustangs were rolling at 21-13.
Live Oak was killing itself with penalties and Gilroy was helping out with some suffocating defense. When GHS safety Jared Kaczorowski intercepted a David Iseman pass at midfield early in the fourth, it looked like the Acorns were all but through.
“In the first half I think we kind of let down a bit,” Kaczorowski said. “But we felt good after halftime and we were fired up and shutting them down.
“And then the card house just kinda fell down.”
If so, the Acorn running backs helped knock it down. After starting at its own 21 with nine minutes left, Live Oak used a 33-yard sweep, three more nice runs, a costly facemask penalty and the third touchdown of the night from Muhn – this one from five yards out. He also caught the two-point conversion that tied the game at 21.
Then, with just over four minutes remaining, a ball tipped by an oncoming Live Oak linebacker was intercepted by Doug Porras around midfield. After sorting out the penalty situation, the ball was given to the Acorns at the GHS 14.
Abbott’s 12-yard touchdown proved to be the game-winner.
Mickartz’ 42-yard completion to Jared Gamm on 4th-and-6 kept the Gilroy hopes alive, but on 4th-and-goal at the 6, a couple of Acorn defenders shot right through the line and forced the GHS quarterback to slip and fall.
“At the end,” Mustangs’ offensive coordinator Tim Pierleoni said, “we needed to execute and we just didn’t get the job done as a unit.”
On Sunday morning, Gilroy will find out when and where it plays its first CCS game in three years.
It’s a good time for a fresh start, Lemos said.
“We have to rebound – it’s basically a whole new season now,” he said. “We’ve climbed that mountain and we’re still just three steps away. I have total faith in my coaches and my teammates.
“We’re not done yet.”
