Wildcats rally from slow start to pound Matadors

By Dick Sparrer

Scott Downs was a little concerned.

After all, it was the end of the first quarter, and his Los Gatos frosh-soph football team trailed Monta Vista 7-6.

So Downs was starting to worry.

But he wouldn't worry for long.

The Wildcats scored three times in the second period to take a 28-7 lead by intermission and they went on to nail down a convincing 56-7 victory over the Matadors to improve to 4-0 for the season.

But the night didn't start out too promising for the Wildcats. The Cats fumbled the first three times they handled the football, and the Matadors took advantage of the mistakes to score an early touchdown.

Los Gatos then came to life.

Charlie Clark went 11 yards for a touchdown to cut the lead to 7-6. Then a 34-yard run by Peter Kiszka set up Clark's 35-yard TD run later in the period. Clark ran in for the two-point conversion, and the Cats were up 14-7.

A 30-yard run by Chris Willard and a 25-yard dash by Brandon Brigham set up Clark for a 3-yard TD, and Clark ran for another two-pointer.

"We finally started to get our rhythm," said Downs.

Matt Cooke picked off a Monta Vista pass to get the Cats the football back, and Steve Sweeny tossed 29 yards to Clark, who then went the final 2 for the touchdown.

Clark, who finished the night with 230 yards on 19 carries, scored his fifth touchdown of the game early in the third period when he raced 68 yards for a TD. Clark's kick made it 35-7.

Sweeny flipped to Clark for 28 yards to set up Willard for a 5-yard TD run and Derek Tam kicked the point after, then Scott Cohn went 20 yards for a score and Tam converted.

Chris McMorrow intercepted a pass and ran it to the Monta Vista 1. Willard went the last yard for the TD, and Jon Goldman kicked the point that made it 56-7.

Willard supported Clark on the ground with 82 yards on 11 carries as they Cats pushed for 401 yards rushing behind a front offensive wall of Nathan Fillhart, Byron Miller, Tom Ferguson, Stuart Gordon and Nick Russell.

Kiszka led the Wildcats defensively by getting in on seven tackles.

"He was all over the field," said Downs of Kiszka. "He had a great game."

Brigham was in on five tackles for the Cats, and Brian Miguel had a couple of quarterback sacks among his four tackles. McMorrow, John Allen and Dennis Freeman were also in on four tackles each.

Gatos will take on Saratoga on Oct. 8, 5:15 p.m., at Los Gatos. Both teams enter the game with 4-0 records. "It should be a real good game," said Downs.

Cats win big

The Los Gatos reserves pounded Monta Vista 32-0 in a Saturday morning game at Monta Vista.

Matt Rose led the charge in the offensive line, and Freeman and Patrich Michaelsen combined for over 100 yards on the ground. Alex Rollin led the club offensively as the quarterback.

David Kleinschmidt, Drew Hoffman, Chris Smith and Dan Haak were defensive standouts in the win.

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