Live Oak falls Vikings, faces Salinas tonight away
Without its three featured running backs on the field to sustain
drives, the Live Oak football team’s offense posed little threat to
the North Salinas High Vikings last Friday night.
Live Oak falls Vikings, faces Salinas tonight away
Without its three featured running backs on the field to sustain drives, the Live Oak football team’s offense posed little threat to the North Salinas High Vikings last Friday night.
As a result, the Acorns lost 35-7 and slipped to 0-6-1 in the process. And with the final three games against Salinas, Palma and Gilroy, having a winless season looks more like a reality every day.
“We’re frustrated right now,” said Live Oak Coach Glen Webb. “We’re decimated by injury.”
Webb isn’t kidding.
At the start of the game, Live Oak was without its star fullback Keith Cooke, who was out with an ankle injury. Without Cooke in the huddle, the Acorns had to rely on the running of Mike Wolfe and Daniel Salinas in order to beat the Vikings.
The only problem was they didn’t get to rely on them for long.
On the game’s opening kickoff, Wolfe damaged cartilage in his knee and it’s uncertain if he will play again this season.
Shortly after that, Salinas suffered a concussion and will miss tonight’s road contest at Salinas High.
And that’s not pleasant news to Webb’s ears, especially going to Salinas.
The Cowboys are the defending Central Coast Section Division II Champions and look like they could repeat again this year.
“Salinas is now setting the pace for the league,” said Webb after hearing of the Cowboys recent 24-13 victory over defending CCS Division I Champs Palma. “They have a lot of three-year players.”
Without Wolfe, Salinas and Cooke last Friday night, Webb played Acorn quarterback Orin Catrett at running back and moved Steven Conner, a wide receiver, to quarterback.
Webb made the move because Catrett is more adept at rushing.
In fact, Catrett scored the Acorns’ only touchdown of the night-a four-yard run that capped off an 11-play, 85-yard drive in the fourth quarter. In addition to Catrett, the Acorns featured Justin Kurlee in the backfield.
While the story, from the Acorns standpoint, was injury, the story on the other side of the field was the explosive running exhibition that was put on by Viking back Ronnie Drummond.
In the first six plays from scrimmage, Drummond bowled over the Acorns-racking up 173 yards running sweeps to the left and right.
After five minutes, the Acorns trailed 21-0 and Drummond was on his way to the hospital.
“He ran so hard that he literally passed out,” said Webb. “He was so anaerobic that he developed acidosis and his body started shutting down.”
Drummond was gone but the damage had already been done.
The Vikings tacked on seven more points in the third quarter and scored again late in the game to put it out of reach.
The game should have been a lot closer, though, as the Acorns got inside the Viking’s 20-yard line four times but managed to come away with only one score.
“We had trouble adjusting to them all night,” said Webb.
For the night, Live Oak could muster just 260 yards of total offense.
The latest loss is another tough pill to swallow for Webb and company, but what’s most frustrating for the Acorns is that they had high hopes at the start of the season. And if it weren’t for bad luck and a slew of injuries, tonight’s game in Salinas might have been for the playoffs.
“We feel like we’re the bridesmaid but never the bride,” said Webb of the winless season that has seen many close, hard-fought battles. “Now we just want to be in the wedding. This loss hurt.”
