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Los Gatos Wildcats roll again-this time 56-3
By Dick Sparrer
The 49ers struck again.
The Los Gatos football team scored 49 points in each of their first threes wins of the 2000 campaign. Then, after being held to just 41 points in a win over Palo Alto last week, the Wildcats did it again last Friday.
But things were a little different this time around. Los Gatos scored 49 points again--but this time in the first half.
The Wildcats roared past Mountain View 56-3 last week to improve to 5-0 for the season.
But as lopsided the nonleague victory may have been for the Cats, head coach Butch Cattolico was a bit concerned with his club's performance, especially with perennial league powerhouse Wilcox looming on the horizon.
"We just went through the motions," said Cattolico after the win over the Spartans. "We weren't sharp, we just had a lot more talent than they did."
"I know how that sounds [after such a big win]," he added. "But our heads were not in the ballgame."
And the Cats will certainly have to have their heads in the game when they return to action in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League this week against Wilcox. The Wildcats will host the Chargers on Oct. 13, 7:30 p.m.
"Wilcox is not a bad football team," said Cattolico of the Chargers, who whipped Palo Alto 27-7 last Friday to improve to 2-0 in league play. "Palo Alto never stopped them."
"They have three kids who really run well," added the Gatos coach. "They run that veer offense, and they just ran through Palo Alto like they weren't even there."
But stopping Wilcox isn't what concerns Cattolico--he just hopes his own offense keeps rolling.
"What our offense has to do is what we've been doing," he said. "Our offense has to go out and attack. We have to try to keep it a wide open game. If we can get ahead, the pressure's going to be on them to come back."
The Wildcats were certainly on the attack last Friday, and Mountain View didn't have what it takes to come back.
The Cats led 49-3 before the half and cruised from there to their fifth win of the season.
The Wildcats failed to move on their first possession of the night. But after that, they scored the next seven times they touched the football.
Junior quarterback Trent Edwards hit Brian Edwards twice over the middle for nine and 35 yards before Derek Smith ran twice for 21 yards. T. Edwards then hooked up with B. Edwards for 12 yards and a touchdown, and the Cats were on their way.
The defense stopped Mountain View cold and the Spartans were forced to punt the ball away. B. Edwards ran back the punt 37 yards and Gatos was in position to score again.
Smith, who led all Gatos ball carriers with 95 yards on eight carries, ran for 18 yards, then scored on a 10-yard run. Anthony Frangadakis kicked the first of his eight extra points, and it was 14-0 after a period.
B. Edwards got the Cats going again moments later when he returned a punt 49 yards to the Gatos 34. T. Edwards tossed eight yards to B. Edwards and Chris Willard ran for 11 to set up Smith for a 15-yard touchdown run.
Mountain View couldn't move after the kickoff and was forced to punt again. This time, in an effort to keep the ball away from B. Edwards, the Spartans booted the ball out of bounds. But it didn't help much. T. Edwards tossed a 38-yard touchdown pass to Geno Gingery to give the Cats a 28-0 lead.
Smith ran 12 yards for a touchdown to up the lead to 35-0 before Mountain View kicked a field goal to get on the scoreboard.
Gatos took just four plays after the kickoff to score again, though. A 28-yard toss from T. Edwards to B. Edwards, a 12-yard run by Smith and a 35-yard pass to Markus Willard set up B. Edwards for an 11-yard touchdown run.
In an effort to battle back in the final moments before the half, Mountain View went to the air. The strategy backfired, though, when M. Willard picked off a pass and raced 46 yards for a touchdown as time ran out in the half.
A 24-yard run by Scott Soucy set up the final Gatos touchdown of the night, a 1-yard by C. Willard.
Smith led a pack of 10 ball carriers for Gatos in the win. Shane Rogers romped for 58 yards on just three carries, including a 37-yard run in the third quarter, and Soucy carried four times for 43 yards. C. Willard added 32 yards on seven tries and B. Edwards, T. Edwards, M. Willard, Jason Rosa, Barrett Carpenter and Travis Howell all gained yards.
T. Edwards had another impressive night throwing the football, completing eight of 12 passes for 179 yards. B. Edwards caught six balls for 108 yards, Gingery had a catch for 36 and M. Willard caught one for 35 yards. Steve Sweeney completed his only pass of the night to James Furlo for 14 yards.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
