Los Gatos Weekly-Times Oak Grove rolls to a win over Los Gatos Wildcats By Dick Sparrer Prior to last Friday night's kick off, Butch Cattolico considered Oak Grove to be "the best football team I've seen all year." And nothing that happened between that kick off and the game's final buzzer changed his opinion. Oak Grove rolled over Los Gatos 33-6 in a nonleague game at San Jose City College last Friday. It marked the second straight loss for the Wildcats, who had opened the year falling 35-21 to San Lorenzo Valley. "I think we could have played better," Cattolico said after the Friday night loss. "But the bottom line is that they are just a better football team than we are." The coach had a pretty good idea that was the case heading into the ballgame. He said going in, "Defensively, they are very, very talented. That's as good a defense as I've seen." And he was saying just about the same thing after the game: "They are so quick, both offensively and defensively, and they are very physical." But while the coach was disappointed with the outcome, he is still optimistic about the Wildcats' chances in 1998. After all, he watched his Cats go winless in the preseason a year ago, then come back to win the league and Central Coast Section titles. "This team has the potential to come of age, but this just wasn't the week for it," he said. "Like I told the kids on Saturday, 'everything is still in front of you.'" But the next thing in front of Los Gatos is unbeaten Leland. So it won't get any easier for the Wildcats this week. The Cats will be home for the first time this season, hosting Leland on Sept. 25, 7:30 p.m. And the Chargers are coming off of a 21-20 win over Bellarmine. "They'll spread you out, and we have to contain [quarterback Richard Tillman]," Cattolico said. "But what I want to do right now is to just play better football. Right now we're making a lot of mistakes. "We've just got to play better defensively. We've got to protect our quarterback and we've got to be able to run the football." Los Gatos didn't do much of that last Friday against Oak Grove. The Wildcats could pick up just 45 yards on the ground, and while they passed for 141 yards, most of that came on two long completions from Ryan Sorahan to Max Hirschman. Unfortunately, both of the long passes came with the Cats well behind on the scoreboard, and only one led to a touchdown. The Wildcats were down 21-0 late in the first half before they ever threatened against the Eagles. Sorahan hit Hirschman for 40 yards, then went back to Brandon Fennema for 16 to get the Wildcats into Oak Grove territory. But two quarterback sacks ended the threat. Oak Grove scored again in the third to go up 27-0, then blocked a punt to set up yet another touchdown. Finally, Los Gatos was able to rally back for a touchdown. Sorahan hooked up with Hirschman over the middle and the Gatos speedster picked up a big block from Troy Towner, then broke it for 52 yards to the Oak Grove nine. Justin Narragon carried three times for the nine yards, blasting over from the one for the touchdown. But Los Gatos never saw the football again, and ended up losing 33-6. Sorahan finished the night six-for-12 for 141 yards but was running for his life most of the game. Hirschman caught the two passes for 92 yards, Chris Cavanagh snagged two for 32 yards and Fennema grabbed two for 17. Narragon led what ground attack there was for Gatos with 20 yards on seven carries. Matt Grover carried one for 14 yards. "We just couldn't move the ball," Cattolico said. "But we weren't on offense very much, so it was a little tough to be in the ballgame." Los Gatos ran just 29 offensive plays to 59 for the Eagles. Safeties Fennema and Cavanagh were the leading tacklers for the Wildcats. "It's not good when your safeties combine for 20 tackles," the coach said. Fennema had 11 to lead the club and Cavanagh was in on nine. Austin Neale got in on 10 tackles for the Wildcats. A bright spot on defense was the performance of senior defensive end Kenny Troquato-Perrotti. "He was one of the big pluses," Cattolico said. "He was a kid who really impressed me and the other coaches." Troquato-Perrotti and Briston Lowry were in on six tackles apiece for the Cats. Hirschman, Chris Brown, Matt Klemchuk, Kevin Mullen and Ben Winkleman were in on four tackles each and Grover and Kevin Mullen were in on three each. Young Cats fall The Los Gatos frosh-soph football team dropped a 20-0 decision to Oak Grove the same night. The Eagles scored a touchdown just before the half to lead 6-0 at intermission, then ran back a kick off and a punt for two TDs in the second half. "The defense just played terrific," Los Gatos coach Scott Downs said. "And overall we played pretty well against a really talented team." John Glage and Adam Dallas were in on seven tackles apiece to lead the Gatos defense, and noseguard John Espe was in on four stops. Cornerback Scott Soucy blocked two passes and made three tackles, and linebacker Nick McAlpine was singled out for a strong effort. Joey Warren made a "tremendous catch" of a Trent Edwards pass that was tipped twice. The play took the Cats to the Oak Grove 12, but a pass was dropped a play later as the half ended. The young Wildcats, now 1-1, will look to get back on the winning track Friday when they host Leland at 5:15 p.m. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, September 23, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.