MORGAN HILL -- When the Live Oak Acorns and Leland Chargers met in 2008, a ticket to the Central Coast Section playoffs might as well had been placed at the 50-yard line.
Both teams were well aware of the stakes going in. The last thing Leland coach Mike Carrozzo told his players before they took the field at rainy Pat Tillman Stadium was, "We win, we're in."
The Chargers won 21-7, and the Acorns were left out of CCS.
At 6-2 overall and 4-1 in Mount Hamilton Division play, Leland is already secured of a postseason going into Friday's 7 p.m. rematch at Richert Field.
On Senior Night, the Acorns (3-5, 3-2) are one payback win from being in the same boat.
"We feel like we want some revenge," Live Oak coach Jon Michael Porras said Wednesday. "You have to treat this game like a playoff game because it basically is for us. Every game is from here on out."
Winners of three of their last four games, the Acorns are confident they can handle the ever-physical Chargers, who are coming off a 27-26 loss to Piedmont Hills that knocked Leland out of the San Jose Mercury News' top 15. The Chargers were missing three key starters for that game, Porras said.
Led by 5-foot-8, 168-pound senior wingback Vincent Gemette (79.1 yards per game in 2009), Leland uses the same wing T offense Live Oak saw against league foes Pioneer and Lincoln. Porras said the Chargers run it just as well as the No. 8-ranked Mustangs.
"They're just as good as Pioneer on both sides of the ball," the third-year coach added. "They're probably going to be the toughest team to stop for us this year."
NOTE: Porras said that junior defensive back Rich Martinez was released from the hospital this week and is recovering "as well as expected" from surgery that removed a large cyst from his brain.
Scott J. Adams Scott J. Adams covers Morgan Hill sports for South Valley Newspapers. Send him an email or call him at 779-4106.
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