Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Los Gatos wide receiver John Stengele makes a fingertip catch for his second touchdown of the night in last Thursday's 34-16 win over Saratoga.

Cats knock off Falcons

Tipped pass helps Cats to 14-0 lead

By Dick Sparrer

Butch Cattolico was content to go in at the half with a 7-0 lead.

After all, his Los Gatos football team had struggled to get into the end zone the entire first half against Saratoga, and he was happy his Wildcats had a lead at all.

So when the Cats stopped a Saratoga drive and took over at their own 8-yard line following a punt, Cattolico was just planning to run the final 1:42 off the clock and go to the locker room to regroup with a 7-0 lead.

But after Alan Rosa picked up four yards on first down, the Falcons called a timeout. And that's when Cattolico changed his mind.

He decided that if the Cats could pick up a first down on the next play, they would go for the end zone in the final moments of the half.

Well, they made it. And they rallied from there to a 34-16 win over the Falcons to run their record to 2-0 in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.

"I thought that if we could get the first down, we could try to get into position for a field goal," said Cattolico.

They did better than that.

Rosa, who rambled for 235 yards on 28 carries in the win, broke through for 11 yards and the key first down, then ran for 13 yards to the 36.

Junior quarterback Ryan Sorahan went to the air to hit tight end Vince Posner over the middle for 32 yards

The Cats were at the Saratoga 35 with just 11 seconds remaining, and Cattolico was considering calling on Rosa for a 52-yard field goal attempt.

"He'd made it in practice," said the coach.

"But then my coaches started screamin' at me to go for it, and Ryan came over to the sidelines and said he'd like to throw one in the end zone."

Sorahan had orders not to force anything into the end zone, and to throw it away if no one was open. He tried, but two Saratoga defensive backs leaped at the back line of the zone and tipped the ball back to a waiting Anthony Fitzgerald for a 35-yard touchdown.

"They tipped it right into his hands with one second left," said Cattolico. Rosa kicked the extra point, and the Cats were up 14-0 at the half.

That had to make Cattolico happy, since the Wildcats had struggled throughout the first half.

"We spent the first quarter shooting ourselves in the foot," he said. "We were beating ourselves out there."

Saratoga got the football quickly when they recovered an onside kick to open the game. But Chris Cavanagh knocked down a halfback pass, and Fred Luminoso sacked the quarterback to force a Falcon punt.

But penalties continued to haunt the Cats throughout the first quarter, and only punts of 48 and 45 yards by Rosa kept Gatos out of trouble.

An interception ended another Gatos drive, but the Cats finally put points on the board when Sorahan hit John Stengele for 47 yards and a TD. Rosa converted to make it 7-0.

That's how the half would have ended had it not been for the deflected pass to Fitzgerald. But Gatos came out to open the third quarter with a comfortable 14-0 lead--then scored three times to put the game out of reach.

"We told them that we had to stop making the stupid mistakes, and we had to take over and dominate the line of scrimmage," said Cattolico. They certainly did.

Sorahan tossed 30 yards to Austin Glover, and Rosa carried five times for 39 yards, including a 1-yard run for a TD.

Cavanagh made a diving interception of a Saratoga pass, and the Cats were in business again. Sorahan tossed to Posner for 34 yards and Rosa ran for 18 to set up his own 10-yard TD run.

"All of a sudden we took over the ballgame," said Cattolico.

But the Cats weren't finished. Justin Lehnert picked off a Saratoga pass, and after Steve LaBarbera ran for 6 yards, Sorahan hit Stengle for 32 yards and a TD.

Saratoga scored a couple of touchdowns in the fourth, but Gatos had more than enough cushion to hang on for the easy win.

"We had an awful lot of kids play well," said the coach after the win. "The kids on the defense played extremely well, and we have a little more balance in our attack now."

Sorahan completed nine of 12 passes for 256 yards and three touchdowns. He went to Posner three times for 84 yards, Stengele twice for 79, Fitzgerald twice for 55 and Glover twice for 38.

Rosa led the running attack with his 235 yards, including a 43-yard run on his first carry of the night. A week earlier, he had taken his first carry against Monta Vista 73 yards for a touchdown.

LaBarbera supported with 31 yards on five carries.

Enzo Iacomini led the defensive effort with 10 tackles and drew praise from the coach.

"He's playing awfully well--as well as any linebacker I've seen play at this school," Cattolico said of Iacomini. "He plays from sideline to sideline."

Glover finished with eight tackles for the Cats, Cavanagh had seven, Lehnert six, Luminoso and Charlie Cucco five each, Fitzgerald and LaBarbera four apiece, and Mike Manson, Austin Neale, Devin Sodt, and Stengele three each. Cavanagh, Lehnert and Fitzgerald each intercepted passes.

"Our secondary played its best ballgame of the year," said the coach. Not only did they pick off three passes, but they held the Falcons to 110 yards on eight of 17 passes.

The coach also singled out Luminoso for an outstanding showing.

"The last three ballgames he's been outstanding at our strongside defensive end," said Cattolico.

The Wildcats, now 2-0 in the division and 2-3 for the year, will be home again this week when they host Fremont on Oct. 17, 7:30 p.m.

"They've had some great success early on in the season," said Cattolico of the Firebirds, who are 4-1 this fall.

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