Los Gatos Weekly-Times Photograph by Scott Lechner Big tackle Mike Belsheim, who was knocked out for the season with a leg injury, is a force that's being missed in the Los Gatos offensive line. Los Gatos quarterback Ryan Sorahan was sacked nine times in last week's 35-21 loss to Milpitas. Milpitas sacks Los Gatos Sorahan falls nine times to tough Trojan rush By Dick Sparrer Ryan Sorahan fell to a mighty Milpitas rush as the first half ended last Friday night. Little did the Los Gatos quarterback know at the time, but it was an indication of much more to come as the Wildcats fell 35-21 to the Trojans in a key game in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League. Los Gatos needed a victory to get back into title contention in the division. Milpitas needed a win to retain sole ownership of first place in the league standings. And it was Milpitas hanging for the important win, largely because of the pressure the Trojans were able to put on Sorahan. The Wildcats trailed just 21-14 and were threatening in the final moments of the first half. A couple of Sorahan tosses to Chris Cavanagh pushed the Cats to the Milpitas 15 late in the half. But Sorahan was sacked twice, and Gatos ended up missing on a long field goal attempt. "We did not do a good job of protecting the quarterback there in the end [of the half]," said Los Gatos coach Butch Cattolico. "And that kind of became the theme in the second half." Sorahan fell to the Milpitas rush nine times in the game, and Los Gatos ended up falling to the Trojans in the key De Anza Division game. Gatos slipped to 1-2 in the division and to 3-4 for the year. Milpitas is now 3-0 in league play. "We had a chance to play for the championship," the coach said. "But I don't know what it is ... We don't seem to be able to play well on the road, or play well in big ballgames." "I told the kids after the game, they've got to learn to play with pressure, because there's pressure in everything you do in life," he added. Los Gatos didn't exactly play poorly in the game. It's just that every time Cattolico looked up, it seemed that the Trojans were racing down the field. "We gave up too many big plays," he said. "But Milpitas is a good football team," he added. "In fact, six of the seven teams we've played are ranked in the top 10 or 12." That will change for the Wildcats over the next three weeks. The Cats play Homestead, Palo Alto and Monta Vista in their final three games of the regular season, and all three have losing season records. "If we can run the table in the last three games in league, we would finish third," said Cattolico. And that would be good for a spot in the Central Coast Section playoffs. Homestead is the first of those three foes, and the Mustangs will visit the Cats on Oct. 30, 7:30 p.m. "They run a double tight, double wing, and they run the ball right at you," Cattolico said. Homestead is actually still a contender in the De Anza Division with a 2-1 record, but the Mustangs are 3-4 for the year. They knocked off Fremont 21-6 in a nonleague game last week. Los Gatos needs a win to keep its playoff hopes alive. And the Cats enter the game still trying to figure out what went wrong last week. "It was one of those games where we're trying to figure out what we did wrong," Cattolico said. Gatos pinned Milpitas deep with the opening kick off, but the Trojans completed a 91-yard touchdown pass on their first play from scrimmage. The Cats came fighting back. Justin Narragon capped a 42-yard drive with a one-yard TD run, and Mike Cook kicked the extra point to tie it 7-7. Narragon carried six times for 41 yards on the drive. "We tried to get Justin established early so that we could throw off of play-action," Cattolico said. But it wasn't to be. Milpitas threw an 80-yard TD pass to move in front 14-7, then scored on a 55-yard punt return to take a 21-7 lead. "After that we seemed to settle down a bit," the coach said. "But by putting ourselves in a hole like that, there were a lot of things they could do defensively." Still, the Cats battled back. Sorahan tossed to Brandon Fennema for a first down, then hit Cavanagh for 23 yards and another first. Narragon carried four times times for 19 yards to set up Sorahan for a six-yard TD toss to Cavanagh. Cook converted again, and it was 21-14. The Gatos defense held the Trojans, forcing them to punt, and Cavanagh returned the kick 17 yards to the LG 40. "It looked like we were in business," Cattolico said. Sorahan tossed 14 yards to Cavanagh, then went back to him for 15 more. But the two sacks ended the scoring hopes for the Cats. Milpitas put together a scoring drive to open the third period, then returned a punt 35 yards to set up another score. The Trojans stopped Gatos again but couldn't move. Milpitas punted, and Cavanagh cut through the defense to race 65 yards for a touchdown. Cook's third kick made it 35-21. The Cats had a couple of more chances. Two Sorahan passes to Kevin Krug for 45 yards got Gatos moving, but a couple of dropped passes and two sacks ended the threat. Later, Sorahan hit Max Hirschman, but he caught the ball out of the end zone. Two incompletes and a sack later, the Trojans had all but wrapped up the win. Sorahan finished the night 10 of 21 for 115 yards, hitting Cavanagh five times for 59 yards, Fennema three times and Krug twice. Narragon led the ground attack with 86 yards on 18 carries, most of that coming in the first half. Noseguard Briston Lowry led the Gatos defense with nine tackles and Cavanagh and Fennema were in on eight apiece. Kenny Troquato-Perrotti and Chris Brown were in on five each, Adrian Rangel and Ben Winkleman had four tackles each, Kellen Durose got in on three and Austin Neale and Matt Klemchuk had two each. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, October 28, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.