Photograph by Paul Myers
Los Gatos running back Chris Willard fights to break a tackle against Wilcox. Willard broke his share of tackles last Friday night, running for 258 yards and four touchdowns in a 49-14 Los Gatos victory.
Cats impressive in win over Wilcox
Willard runs for 258 yards, 4 TDs in win
By Dick Sparrer
There are many football followers who are pretty impressed with the Los Gatos Wildcats this fall.
And for good reason. The Wildcats are off to a 6-0 start this season, three of the wins coming in the rugged De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.
The Cats added yet one more win to that imposing record last Friday night. And when they did, they added one more guy to the list of those who are very impressed with the Wildcats of 2001: Los Gatos head coach Butch Cattolico.
They did it by toasting Wilcox 49-14 last Friday night at Helm Field. The Wildcats rolled to the victory after finishing a quarter locked in a 14-14 tie with the Chargers, and they did so against a Wilcox team that is arguably the second best club in the circuit this fall.
Wilcox tied it 14-14 late in the first quarter, and Cattolico admitted to getting a little worried.
But Los Gatos fought back to take a 28-14 lead by the half, and that's when Cattolico and his Cats did a little soul-searching.
"We had talked about making a statement here," Cattolico said. "We had told them before the game that if they wanted to impress people, go out and beat Wilcox (convincingly)."
"Well," he added, "I told them 'we're going to win, but we're not going to impress anybody.'"
Then they did.
The Wildcats scored three unanswered touchdowns in the second half to roll to a 49-14 win over the Chargers.
"They went out and they impressed me," said Cattolico after the win. "It was a rather impressive win."
No matter what the Chargers did, they couldn't stop the Wildcats. When they played their safeties back, Chris Willard ate up yardage on the ground. When they brought their safeties up, Trent Edwards picked apart the secondary.
"We felt that their two outside linebackers were very weak and that we could run the ball off tackle on them," said the coach. "We knew they'd have to bring their two safeties up to stop our running game. And when they did... that's all Trent needs to know."
Los Gatos didn't throw much, but Edwards picked his spots to complete six of eight passes for 161 yards and three touchdowns.
"He had his usual good day," said the coach of his quarterback.
When Edwards wasn't throwing it, Willard was running it. The senior back carried 35 times for 258 yards and four touchdowns.
"He had the game of his life," said Cattolico of Willard.
Los Gatos finished the night with more than 450 yards of total offense. But it was a defensive play--actually a play on special teams--that might have just turned the tide on the night.
Just after the Wildcats went up 21-14 in the second quarter, Wilcox speedster Ardell Briggs hauled in a Gatos kick off and was head up the field.
"[Kenny] Heimer went down the field and hit him full speed," said Cattolico of the impressive collision. "I thought it looked like the kid didn't want to run as hard after that. Every time he got the ball it seemed like he was looking to see where Kenny was."
Heimer and Jon Espe led another inspired defensive for the Wildcats. The two shared the lead in tackles with 11 apiece. Heimer had the big hit on the kick off, and Espe added a quarterback sack.
Drew Hoffman, Travis Howell and Eric Brown were in on eight tackles each and Chris McMorrow was in on seven.
The coach was especially pleased with the performance of Hoffman, who blocked two passes and sacked the quarterback from his defensive end post.
"He's one of those juniors who has really come along for us," said Cattolico of Hoffman.
The game see-sawed in the early going. Los Gatos struck first when, after a 31-yard kick off return by Charlie Clark, Edwards hit Scott Cohn with a 36-yard touchdown strike.
Wilcox answered right back to tie it, but Clark got the Cats going again with a 21-yard kick off return. Willard carried the ball four times for 33 yards to get the Wildcats into Wilcox territory. When the Chargers brought their safeties up to stop Willard, Edwards hit Cohn for 34 yards and a score.
But Briggs took off on a 76-yard touchdown run a couple of plays later, and the game was tied 14-14.
That's when Gatos started to pull away.
Edwards tossed 21 yards to Travis Howell and Willard carried five times for 42 yards, scoring the TD on a 2-yard run.
A 19-yard Edwards pass to Cohn set up a 4-yard touchdown run by Willard to give the Cats the 28-14 lead at the half.
Anthony Frangadakis kicked the extra point after each of the four first-half touchdowns, as he did after all seven Gatos TDs. He has now converted on 36 of 36 extra points this fall.s
Los Gatos came out smoking in the second half. Willard carried three times for 25 yards, Edwards fired to Howell for 18 yards and Willard took off on an 18-yard touchdown run.
Edwards worked his magic late in the third quarter when he showed his composure on a 33-yard touchdown pass to Cohn.
"He fumbled the snap," said Cattolico. "But he just reached down and picked it up, then dropped back to throw the ball in stride. His timing was there just like it needed to be."
Willard, working behind the solid blocking off Howell at fullback, Gino Gingery at tight end and Ryan Johnson, Evan McDonald, Dan Holtzman, John Allen and Nick Crafford in the offensive line, scored the final touchdown of the night on a 1-yard run.
Clark supported Willard on the ground with six carries for 48 yards. Cohn finished the night with four catches for 122 yards and two touchdowns, and Howell had a pair of receptions for 39 yards.
Cohn also played well on the defensive side, getting in on six tackles for the Cats. Gingery was in on five tackles and Clark added four.
Allen, Andrew O'Gorman, Barrett Carpenter, Theron McCarty, Ben Miller, David Fencl, Stuart Gordon, Andy Betzina and Shaun Sullivan were other Wildcats in on tackles.
Los Gatos will take a break from league play this week, but the Wildcats will be in action in a rare Thursday night game. The Cats will host Los Altos on Oct. 18, 7:30 p.m., at Helm Field. The Eagles are 0-5 this season.
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