Acorns water polo team in the swim after uncharacteristic
opening
The Live Oak boy’s water polo team is young and has struggled
this season. But on Wednesday, the Acorns looked like the Acorns of
yesteryear in their 19-3 shellacking of Gilroy High at home.
Acorns water polo team in the swim after uncharacteristic opening
The Live Oak boy’s water polo team is young and has struggled this season. But on Wednesday, the Acorns looked like the Acorns of yesteryear in their 19-3 shellacking of Gilroy High at home.
“We had kind of a breakout game,” said Live Oak Coach Mac Haines. “We played well and we really needed it.”
With the victory, the Acorns are now 3-1 in Tri-County Athletic League competition and 8-12 overall.
While that record would be acceptable for many schools, for Live Oak it is substandard. In the past 15 years, the Acorns have won 13 league titles. On top of that, the Acorns have made it into the Central Coast Section playoffs 25 consecutive times.
“We’re just in a down cycle right now,” said Haines. “And last year we didn’t have a pool. That affected us.”
The other thing that has affected the Acorns’ level of play is their lack of experience. The 2002 team is made up of mostly freshman and sophomores. In addition, Mark Ahlin, the Acorns leading scorer, broke his hand last week in a tournament.
But don’t tell those excuses to Gilroy Coach Tom Clark, who watched his Mustangs get dominated on both sides of the ball.
“It was our first time in a big pool,” said Clark. “We just couldn’t keep up. It’s not that they have better swimmers; it’s just that they anticipated better. They have a lot of young kids, but they do well.”
Gilroy is now 4-12 overall and 0-4 in league play.
For the Acorns to make the CCS playoffs and keep their string alive, they’ll have to win their final two league games against Carmel High on Oct. 28 and Hollister on the 30th.
Although both games are in Morgan Hill, Haines knows that his players will have their work cut out for them-especially against the Balers.
“Hollister is talented and loaded with seniors,” said Haines. “I’d be shocked if they didn’t win league. A lot of their team played with us this summer. They are good and dedicated. The only way we’ll go to CCS is by beating Hollister.”
Against Gilroy, the Acorns dominated play from the opening whistle. After the first quarter, Live Oak had a 6-1 lead and built it to 10-1 by halftime.
By the end of the third quarter, Live Oak had opened up a commanding 17-1 lead. At that point, Haines radically changed his offensive plan and actually made the team practice drills while the game was going on.
“We put in different restrictions after the half,” Haines said. “They had to make at least five passes every time on offense before shooting; or only set up certain kids who hadn’t scored.”
By the end of the game, everyone on the Live Oak roster had scored at least a goal.
Leading the way for the Acorns was senior Matt McElroy with five goals. Terry Sullivan and Justin Short each had hat tricks.
Travis Gamble, Lee Walton and Steven Dixon scored Gilroy’s goals.
Gilroy will wrap up its season next week against Robert Louis Stevenson High School in Gilroy.
“We’re just very young,” said Clark, who, like Haines, lost most of his players from last season. “Everyone on this team started on last year’s JV team.”
