BURLINGAME - The tables turned very quickly in Live Oak's 22-16 win over Burlingame on Friday night. After a fumble on the goal-line by Burlingame was recovered by Live Oak with three minutes left in the game, the Acorns proceeded to drive down the field and close out the game.
“We knew we had a long ways to go in a short amount of time," said Live Oak coach Mike Gemo. "We have a pretty big back that we thought we could run up the middle a bit, and then get outside with our quarterback and see what could happen."
The Acorns moved the chains, utilizing the talent in quarterback Caleb Ojeda who was 9-of-13 for 116 yards through the air, while rushing for 193 yards and two scores on eight carries in his first-ever start at quarterback. That included a dazzling 89-yard touchdown dash. For his first game, Ojeda was confident, but had plenty of help with the horsepower of Mosiah Saulala, who put up 69 yards on 12 carries and also had 81 yards receiving on three catches. On the final drive, Ojeda connected with Saulala before the big junior powered into the end zone with the game-winning score.
The late drive and score for the Acorns capped a fourth-quarter comeback, after Burlingame led 16-9 heading into the final 12 minutes.
“For the first part of the game we were a little shaky, but when the game was on the line they came through and made plays,” Gemo added.
While the Acorns did come out with the win, the game could have gone either way seeing as the Panthers were in scoring position at the end of the game. In their final drive, the Panthers were set back by an intentional grounding penalty by quarterback Jordan Malashus. However, one play later, Taylor Kaufman saved the drive with an incredible diving grab to give the Panthers a 30-yard gain and a first down. The Panthers went with the ground and pounded for the rest of the drive, using their talent in Lucas Meredith to get in scoring position before the late turnover.
Despite their late efforts, the Panthers took the loss giving head coach John Philipopoulos lots of room to improve before facing a tough Half Moon Bay team, who is coming off a win versus Jefferson, next week.
“I thought we played well - we played fast, we played hard, and made a lot of great plays - but we turned the ball over three times within the 10-yard line and against a good football team you can’t win like that,” Philipopoulos said.
The Acorns will look to go 2-0 at the start of the season next week in their game against Christopher, who lost to The King's Academy in its opener.
