Live Oak’s girls soccer squad failed to make the CCS playoffs
for the first time in 13 years
The Live Oak girls’ soccer team failed to win a league
championship for the first time in 13 years this season, and head
coach Tony Vasquez has his wife to blame
– in a roundabout sort of way.
”
The funny part is that my wife headed the campaign to build a
new high school in Morgan Hill so I guess I’ll blame my wife,
”
said Vasquez with a chuckle after discussing his team’s failure
to make the playoffs for the first time since he’s been at the helm
of the program.
”
I married her last year. Before that, she was Michelle Pusateri.
She was the one who got the idea for Sobrato High School passed by
the school board. She ran the board campaign.
”
Live Oak’s girls soccer squad failed to make the CCS playoffs for the first time in 13 years
The Live Oak girls’ soccer team failed to win a league championship for the first time in 13 years this season, and head coach Tony Vasquez has his wife to blame – in a roundabout sort of way.
“The funny part is that my wife headed the campaign to build a new high school in Morgan Hill so I guess I’ll blame my wife,” said Vasquez with a chuckle after discussing his team’s failure to make the playoffs for the first time since he’s been at the helm of the program. “I married her last year. Before that, she was Michelle Pusateri. She was the one who got the idea for Sobrato High School passed by the school board. She ran the board campaign.”
Today, that new school across town, which boasted its first senior class last fall, is a major factor in the demise of the perennial powerhouse.
“Obviously, our talent pool for every sport at Live Oak went down when Sobrato opened,” said Vasquez, who guided the Acorns to a Central Coast Section title in 2004. “I thought that we’d make CCS this year; then we’d struggle for a while. I thought we had the individual talent this year to do well but we haven’t had one go-to girl up front.”
While the Acorns have struggled to put the ball in the net this year, it has been the lone strength of Sobrato High. This season the Bulldogs’ Ashley Grose and Katie Alton have combined for 21 goals – 16 goals more than the Acorns have scored as a team all season.
Vasquez knows that just two short years ago both of those players would have been playing for the Acorns.
He also knows that with players like Grose and Alton on his squad, this article might have been about the Acorns umpteenth league title in a row – not about their first losing season in more than two decades.
“Before Sobrato came, we lost a lot of girls to the private schools every year anyway,” said Vasquez, who also coaches in the city’s Orchard Valley Youth Soccer League. “Now we’re losing them to Sobrato and the private schools. This year it’s finally starting to catch up to us.”
In past years winning a league title was a formality for Live Oak – a team that did not lose a single league game the previous three seasons. But this year the Acorns are 4-5-7 overall and 3-3-5 in league and have struggled since day one.
On Tuesday afternoon Live Oak traveled across town to play Sobrato and walked off the field with an unfulfilling 1-1 tie.
“It was a little frustrating this year, more so for the seniors. They put in the time and effort,” said Vasquez, whose team finished in fourth place in league, just ahead of Sobrato High. “For me, I’m just the coach. I know that you win some and you lose some. No one likes to lose but you learn a lot from it and it builds character.”
Next year the Acorns won’t have the chance to redeem themselves by reclaiming the Tri County Athletic League title as they will compete with Sobrato in the San Jose-base Blossom Valley Athletic League.
In addition to the Sobrato ramifications, the Acorns offensive output this year has also been hampered by the loss of last year’s league MVP Michelle McDonald to graduation as well as the All-League center midfielder Lena Marsh.
“Losing Michelle hurt us more than any other MVP that I’ve lost over the years,” said Vasquez. “She scored a lot of goals. Usually, I can find girls that will come in and replace the graduating seniors. But this year we don’t have a player who can punch it in. We’ve been in every game but our inability to score has been our downfall.”
In the 16 games that Live Oak has competed in this year they have scored more than one goal only four times.
A year ago scoring four and five goals was commonplace. Last year, McDonald led the team in scoring with 19 goals. This year that’s the Acorns’ team total.
Senior forward Jamie La Forge is leading this year’s squad with four goals, and the team’s goalie, Andrea Riolo, is second on the team with three goals.
“That’s how bad it has been this year for me,” said Vasquez, who, until now, has never seen any of his teams lose a league title since he took over the program in 1999. “I’ve tried everything that I can this year but it’s been a learning experience. We’ve just never been able to get the right mix this year, offensively or defensively.”
Last year the Acorns made it to the CCS quarterfinals before losing to Santa Teresa on penalty kicks. Live Oak might not have made it that far had it not been for the solid efforts of Marsh, who was known for her relentless play on both sides of the field.
“She had the ability to control the middle of the field with her play. And when we’d lose the ball she’d get it back and help get the offense going again,” said Vasquez.
Without Marsh and McDonald times have been tough. But Vasquez went on to say that he doesn’t like to point the finger or make excuses as to why his team has struggled this year. Instead, he’d like to think that the trend will be short-lived.
“I coach an under-13 team and help with an under-11 team at Orchard Valley,” said Vasquez. “There are a lot of good young players coming up. That’s what we’re all hoping for – more kids playing sports. Some of them will go to Sobrato and some to Live Oak but as the population grows it shouldn’t hurt us too long.”
