Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Cats lose a key game to the Chargers

Just the opener, but it could have been for the division title

By Dick Sparrer

It was only the first game of the league season. But the Friday night football clash between Los Gatos and Wilcox took on the appearance of a league championship game. And, unfortunately for the Wildcats, it probably was.

Los Gatos lost a lopsided 37-7 decision to the Wilcox in the league opener. But the real bad news for the Wildcats is that it doesn't look like there's anyone else who can beat the Chargers in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.

"That's what we were telling the kids," Los Gatos head coach Butch Cattolico said. But the Wildcats couldn't rise to the occasion.

"We just didn't play well," Cattolico admitted. "Defensively, we just made so many mistakes. We got behind so quickly that it took us out of what we wanted to do offensively."

The Cats could move but couldn't score against Wilcox. The Chargers, however, didn't have that problem. Los Gatos drove the ball early, but stalled. Then Wilcox scored on a 44-yard run. The Wildcats moved the football again, but fumbled. Wilcox scored again.

Then Gatos drove the ball one more time and stalled once more. The Cats punted deep to pin the Chargers at their own 5. But Jason Dent took off on a 95-yard touchdown run, and Wilcox was up 21-0.

Still, the Cats kept fighting back.

Senior quarterback Ryan Sorahan hit Chris Cavanaugh for 25 yards, Adrian Rangel for 27 more and Max Hirschman for eight yards to take the Wildcats to the Wilcox 4 in the final seconds of the half. But the Chargers sacked Sorahan on the final play of the half and took their 21-0 lead in at intermission.

"We needed a lot of people to make big defensive plays, and we didn't," Cattolico said.

It was more of the same in the second half. The Chargers scored quickly to go up 27-0, then took advantage of a fumble and an interception to add another touchdown and a field goal.

"The big thing that really hurt us," Cattolico said, "was that we lost three fumbles and had the one interception. They did not turn the ball over."

Los Gatos finally scored late in the game when three Sorahan completions set up his 41-yard scoring toss to Rangel. Mike Cook kicked the extra point to cut the lead to 37-7, but the Chargers ran out the clock for the win.

Sorahan completed 11 of 21 passes for 161 yards in the game. Rangel snagged four passes for 87 yards, Cavanagh caught two for 33, Brandon Fennema grabbed two for 19, Matt Grover caught two for 14 and Hirschman had the one catch.

Fennema led the ground attack with 42 yards on eight carries. Justin Narragon supported with 22 yards on five tries.

"Early in the game, I thought we were running the ball real well," the coach said. But when the Cats fell so far behind, they had to go to the air attack.

Grover carried twice for 22 yards for Gatos, and Cavanagh had a run for 17 yards.

Cavanagh led all Gatos tacklers with 10 stops, despite leaving the game in the third period with a shoulder injury.

Briston Lowry and John Glage were in on eight tackles apiece for the Wildcats, and Austin Neale, Nick Skrabe and Ben Winkleman were in on six each. Andy Housley and Rangel were each involved in five tackles, and Matt Klemchuk and Kellen Durose were in on four apiece. Kenny Troquato-Perrotti, Chris Brown, Troy Towner, Andre Yancey, Chris Brown, Rick Esparza, Kevin Mullen, Brandon Chapatte and Hirschman were others in on tackles for Los Gatos.

The Wildcats, now 0-1 in league play and 1-3 for the year, will gun for a victory when they return home to host Mountain View on Oct. 9 in a 7:30 p.m. nonleague game.

"We're going to make some adjustments," Cattolico said. "We need to take this week and go back to fundamentals."

[ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ]