Wildcats roll to lopsided frosh-soph win over LA
By Dick Sparrer
It was a week off for the Los Gatos frosh-soph football team, but not so anyone would notice.
The young Wildcats took a week off from play in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League but filled that bye with a non-league clash against Los Altos. And then they proceeded to fill the Los Altos end zone with footballs.
The Cats rolled to a 56-15 win over the Eagles to push their season record to 6-1.
Los Gatos, 3-0 in the division, will return to league play this week, visiting Santa Clara at Townsend Field on Oct. 26, 5:15 p.m.
The Wildcats rolled up over 500 yards of total offense in the lopsided win over the Eagles, most of it coming on the ground.
Two Gatos backs rushed for more than 100 yards in the win. Danny Bates led the attack with three carries for 104 yards and three touchdowns, and Matt Miguel finished with 100 yards on seven tries.
John Davidge was the workhorse of the Los Gatos backfield, carrying 12 times for 90 yards and a couple of scores.
Eric Pape supported with a couple of runs for 37 yards, Alex Ghanavatti carried five times for 34 yards, Patrick McDonald ran twice for 24 yards, and Carlos Bravo had an 18-yard run.
The Cats also did all right through the air. Kyle Jensen completed 4 of 4 passes for 77 yards, and Kevin McCarty tossed a 43-yard touchdown pass to Devin Lopez.
Bravo caught a couple of balls for 39 yards, Nick Reimnitz had a catch for 30 yards, and McDonald caught a pass for eight yards.
To run up such impressive numbers, the offensive line has to do its job. And it was last week.
"I was very pleased with the play of our offensive line," said Los Gatos coach Dale Gustafson, saying that Ryan Lecznar, Nic Perrone, Matt Furlo, Greg Kelly, Danny Starick and Mark Ericson all "blocked extremely well."
"It seemed like our running backs weren't even touched until they had run 10 yards," he added. "They worked very hard in preparing for Los Altos' defense, and they executed almost perfectly. They were the key to our success tonight."
The defense wasn't bad either, holding the Eagles to just one first down in the first half.
"That really put the game away," Gustafson said.
Ivan Batinich led the Cats with eight tackles. Brian Ballard got in on six stops, and David Holtzman finished with five.
It was a "crushing block" by Batinich that helped Davidge score on a 3-yard run to start the scoring. It was the first of two 3-yard TD runs for Davidge.
Bates scored on runs of 20 and 80 yards, and he also had a 60-yard punt return for a touchdown.
McDonald and Ghanavatti each scored on 15-yard runs, and McCarty had the 43-yard TD toss to Lopez.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
