The season won’t end for the losing team like with last year’s
El Toro Bowl, but tonight’s second-ever meeting between Live Oak
and Sobrato could determine fates in 2008.
The season won’t end for the losing team like with last year’s El Toro Bowl, but tonight’s second-ever meeting between Live Oak and Sobrato could determine fates in 2008.
The curtain goes up at 7 p.m. in Richert Field, on the same turf where Live Oak’s run to the CIF-Central Coast Section championship hit full stride last November with a first-round playoff victory over the Bulldogs.
The Acorns rallied to beat Sobrato 22-7 in front of more than 4,000 people, roughly one-tenth the population of Morgan Hill.
“It was one of the biggest wins in school history,” Live Oak coach Jon Michael Porras said. “I’ve never seen a team more excited after a win. That definitely had a lot to do with our success in the playoffs. We weren’t even thinking about the (CIF-CCS) championship afterward, though. We felt like we had just won it.”
While their cross-town rivals rode the afterglow into the title game, the Sobrato Bulldogs began the countdown to El Toro Bowl II. As of today, it will have been 294 days since the teams last met.
“They’ve thought about it every day, I think,” Sobrato first-year coach Nick Borello said. “It’s all they’ve been talking about. Everybody involved knows about September 5. It’s the biggest game of the season, and you start off with it.”
What better – or worse – way to kick off a head coaching stint, much less a season? Borello was an assistant under then-head coach Dan Brown for the last El Toro Bowl, when the Bulldogs built a 7-0 lead in the first quarter only to be shutout the rest of the way.
“That was a pretty quiet locker room,” Borello said. “I just remember the coaches telling (the players) they gave it their best and they couldn’t be more proud. The players wanted a ‘W,’ though, obviously. … I think that loss left them wanting it even more this year. A win here could easily set the tone for the rest of the season.”
The biggest difference between this and last year’s El Toro Bowl is preparation. Although both teams run the fly offense, Sobrato has two advantages in knowing Live Oak’s tendencies and having no game film to swap.
Borello tweaked the Bulldogs’ system in the offseason, prompting Porras to sample tapes of Palma High School, Borello’s alma mater.
“We’ve been going through hours of it,” Porras said. “They run the same system, so we expect to see a lot of the same plays and packages.”
Sobrato’s defense had little answer for Live Oak after the first quarter last year. Quarterback Jeff Roberts provided three touchdowns for the Acorns, and Casey Mott added a 21-yard field goal for insurance in the fourth quarter.
Robert’s first score, a 1-yard keeper, cut the deficit to 7-6 at the half.
“We knew we had them,” said Roberts, who earned first-team all-league honors as a junior. “They were beating us because we made a lot of mistakes. We knew all we had to do was just execute and the win would be ours.”
Roberts, a dual-threat QB, reeled off 146 all-purpose yards before leaving the game in the fourth quarter with a broken ankle. He’ll make his second El Toro Bowl start Friday while Sobrato breaks in a new signal-caller in Steven Sorce, a senior, and lead running backs Tim Cavanaugh and Mike O’Connell.
Sorce will be under center for the first few games of the season in place of last year’s starter, Erick Levell, who’s nursing a surgically repaired left knee.
“It’s a big game for all of us,” Sorce said. “I guarantee we’re going to give it our all again. If we do that, I don’t see us losing any games this year.”
In the previous meeting, Levell put the Bulldogs ahead when he connected with wideout Jo Jo Anaya for a 7-yard score. Levell completed 7 of 13 passes for 78 yards and one interception.
“I’ll be cheering us on this time,” he said. “It sucks not playing this year. But I got my chance last season.”
Priority No. 1 for both sides is stopping the run. Combined, there were only 18 passes thrown in last year’s game compared to 73 rushes. Porras and Borello expect a similar ratio Friday.
“They’ve got a great quarterback and some great ball-carriers, there’s no question about it,” said Borello, whose Bulldogs will play as the visiting team. “We’ve got to challenge them at the line and keep them off balance.”
Sobrato will try to stop Roberts and running backs Billy Van Aken and Jeff Blean, who combined for 27 carries in El Toro Bowl I, while Live Oak pursues Cavanaugh and O’Connell.
“We can’t wait to get after them again,” Live Oak strong safety Nick Priedite said. “We couldn’t be more fired up.”
