By Dick Sparrer
It won't count in the race for the league championship.
In fact, the victory Los Gatos nailed over Mountain View last Friday night had nothing at all to do with the football race in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.
But as the Wildcats make their run for the division crown, Gatos head coach Butch Cattolico will no doubt recall fondly the night his Wildcats turned back the Spartans. And he'll remember it as the night when his offense took on the look he's been looking for all season long.
The Cats were firing on all cylinders in the Friday night game at Foothill College. The outcome was typical Los Gatos football, the kind its championship teams have played.
Tailback Alan Rosa carried 30 times for 151 yards, and quarterback Josh Rogers hooked up on 12 of 18 passes for 179 yards. At the same time, wide receiver Joel Gremore caught four passes for 63 yards and carried seven times for 89 yards.
That's just how Cattolico likes it.
"We're playing pretty good football," he said, "but the biggest games of the year are still coming."
Los Gatos is 3-2 for the year and 1-0 in the De Anza Division. And a big one is coming this week when the Cats visit defending champion Wilcox on Oct. 18, 7:30 p.m.
The Cats got off to a great start in the ballgame when Stu Davis returned the opening kickoff 42 yards into Mountain View territory.
Rosa carried for 13 yards before Rogers hit Reny Townsend for 20 more. It was one of six catches for 108 yards for Townsend in the game.
Rogers capped the opening drive with a five-yard scoring toss to Ben May and Rosa converted.
The Cats came right back with an eight-play, 80-yard drive for a second score. A 31-yard pass from Rogers to Townsend set up Gremore for a four-yard TD run.
Mountain View came back with a touchdown to make it 14-7 at the half, but the Cats scored early in the third period. Carlos Lanuza recovered a fumble, and after Rosa carried four times for 21 yards, Rogers hit Townsend for 20 yards and a score.
Mountain View cut it to 20-14, but Gatos added an insurance score in the fourth when Gremore ran 10 yards for a TD and hauled in a Rogers pass for the two-point conversion.
Charlie Cucco led the Cats defensively with nine tackles and Lanuza was in on six. Doug Miller, Austin Neale and Jeremy Malander were in on five tackles each, and Malander forced a fumble that Gremore recovered. Gremore also had an interception and was in on four tackles.
Chris Cavanagh, Townsend and Mike Schnitzer were in on four tackles each and Mike Manson had a quarterback sack among his three tackles. Rosa, Justin Lehnert and Anthony Fitzgerald were other top tacklers.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, October 16, 1996.
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