Under cloudy skies, Live Oak bests Sobrato in annual showdown

Published in the Oct. 2-15, 2013 issue of Morgan Hill Life

By Staff Report

El Toro Bowl

Sobrato High School cheerleaders encourage the crowd during this year’s El Toro Bowl.

It’s late Saturday afternoon at Live Oak High School, Sept. 21, and the rainclouds hang heavy in the sky over Morgan Hill as the starting time of the annual El Toro Bowl varsity football game approaches. The anticipation mounts as the Sobrato Bulldogs and Live Oak’s Mighty Acorns prepare to wage gridiron war on the campus’s football field. Players from both sides stretch their limbs and do warm-up exercises for the most anticipated game of the year, a friendly-spirited, cross-town rivalry that adds to the athletic ambiance of our community.

The long hours of practice sweating under a hot summer sun, the training in weight rooms and hard runs to get in shape, the coaching and parental encouragement … all the many hard hours of preparation boil down to this faceoff of high school boys wearing the gold and green football jerseys of Live Oak or the maroon football jerseys of Sobrato.

People stream from their cars through the parking lot, and funnel through the ticket takers. There’s an excitement filling the air, along with the smell of barbecue … hamburgers, hot dogs, tri-tip. The meat sizzles over the flames of a massive portable grill manned by the cooks. Parents and students line up at the Snack Shack to purchase their football game munchies.

El Toro Bowl

The Live Oak high School mascot inspires the Live Oak football team fans.

The bleachers start filling with crowds of spectators, the Live Oak fans facing west toward the setting sun by El Toro, the Sobrato fans facing east toward the dusk-tipped Diablo Mountain range. Some of the football fans chat with their seat neighbors, others spend this time watching the players on the field getting ready for the action.

The young men are throwing and catching the pigskin. As the moment of measure approaches, they start psyching themselves up in a mass huddle with their fingers extended to the sky. The lights hovering high over the field on towering poles beam down upon the field of battle with a surreal radiance, an almost angelic glow highlighting rain-wet green grass in contrast to the surrounding night.

Cheerleaders in their uniforms, their hair neatly tied back, wave pompoms in the air and kick and shout and rouse the crowds on each respective side of the field to get fans excited for their respective team. They form a cluster and several of the girls are lifted up by other cheerleaders, their index finger pointed skyward … “We’re number one!” “Go Acorns!” “Go Bulldogs!” Waving a gloved finger, a mascot in an acorn uniform rouses the Live Oak fans to prep-up for the game.

Members of each school’s marching band stream into the stadium and find their places along the track bordering the field. The martial music of drums and brass-wind instruments adds to the charged atmosphere as the countdown on the scoreboard clock brings the kickoff ever closer. Referees in their striped uniforms huddle on the field in heavy discussion.

El Toro Bowl

Linemen in their stance prepare for the snap of the ball.

At last, the magic hour approaches. An announcer asks everyone to prepare for the flag salute. People in the bleachers rise and face the red, white and blue waving in the breeze. The players take off their helmets and line up at attention. America’s National Anthem plays over the loudspeakers. And at the end, the roar of a patriotic cheer fills the field as game time ticks closer.

Adrenalin fills the Live Oak and Sobrato gridiron gladiators as they line up in their places. With the opening kick-off, the ball becomes a missile soaring over the field and the brutal battle for the El Toro Bowl begins.

By the end of that magical night’s game, the scoreboard will show Live Oak beating Sobrato 27 to 19.