Los Gatos Weekly-Times Photograph by Scott Lechner Los Gatos speedster Chris Cavanagh runs through the Saratoga defense in his club's 24-0 victory. Cavanagh scored a touchdown for the Wildcats in the win. A big night for the Wildcats Los Gatos, Milpitas will play for first place By Dick Sparrer Butch Cattolico liked what he saw on late-night television last Friday night, and it had nothing to do with either David Letterman or Jay Leno. No, the late-night show Cattolico was watching was "High School Sports Focus" on KICU-TV, channel 36. And that's the first he had heard of the big Milpitas victory over Wilcox. The Trojans' 35-27 win over the Chargers was big for the Wildcats, because it gave Gatos a new life in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League. "We had pretty much given up on having a chance at the league championship," said Cattolico, whose club lost to Wilcox a couple of weeks ago. "We were just looking for a playoff spot. But now we have something to shoot for." It's first place, and the Wildcats will be shooting for it this Friday night when they visit Milpitas for a 7:30 p.m. game. The Trojans are alone in first place with a 2-0 record following their win over Wilcox, coupled with an impressive 24-0 win by Los Gatos over Saratoga. That leaves Gatos, Wilcox, Saratoga and Homestead in a virtual tie for second place in the division. "It's a lot more exciting where we are today than where we were on Thursday," Cattolico said after his club's big win over the Falcons. "It's exciting because now our kids have a second chance at it." The Wildcats are coming off their finest showing of the season as they head to Milpitas. The Cats were impressive in every phase of the game in the win over the Falcons. "We really did a good job against what I thought was a pretty good football team," Cattolico said. "I think the kids really played well. Defensively and offensively, we were playing better football." The Wildcats, now 1-1 in league and 3-3 for the year, ran up nearly 400 yards of total offense while holding the Falcons to less than 100. Chris Cavanagh and Austin Neale were outstanding in the Los Gatos victory. Cavanagh was a defensive leader for the Cats with 10 tackles and a fumble recovery, but he was a superstar offensively, hauling in 12 passes for 176 yards and a touchdown. "He had one of those days where he was just all over the field," Cattolico said of Cavanagh. Neale was impressive in the offensive line, but he was tremendous defensively with 10 tackles, including three quarterback sacks. "He was just unblockable," the coach said. Neale led a defense that sacked the quarterback six times, recovered four fumbles and held the vaunted Saratoga running attack to just 45 net yards rushing. "This is a team that ran for 500 yards just a couple of weeks ago," Cattolico said of Saratoga. Briston Lowry had two sacks among his seven tackles and he also recovered a fumble, and Adrian Rangel had seven tackles. Brandon Fennema added six tackles and "was the key to stopping their option," the coach said. Kenny Troquato-Perrotti was in on five tackles, and Ben Winkleman, Kellen Durose and Chris Brown were in on four each. Winkleman had a sack and a fumble recovery, and Brandon Chapatte also covered a Saratoga fumble. Senior quarterback Ryan Sorahan was an impressive 14 of 19 for 209 yards and a touchdown through the air. Cavanagh caught 12 of the passes, including a four-yarder for a touchdown, and Fennema and Rangel snagged one apiece. Justin Narragon led the ground attack with 18 carries for 103 yards, including TD runs of 21 and four yards. A big reason for the success of the offense was the play of the offensive front wall. "Our kids up front did an outstanding job of blocking and protecting the quarterback," Cattolico said. "We were quite pleased." Neale moved to a tackle spot this week and joined with tackle Matt Klemchuk, guards Chapatte and Durose and center Kevin Mullen to lead the charge. But it didn't end there. Cattolico was also quite pleased with the work of kicker Mike Cook. "He had a real strong day, which helped our special teams," Cattolico said. Cook punted four times, averaging nearly 37 yards per punt, and he averaged 57 yards on five kickoffs. He also kicked three extra points and a 36-yard field goal, and he just missed on a 45-yard field goal attempt. "He picked up the kicking game 100 percent," Cattolico said of Cook. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, October 21, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.