Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Second straight loss is tough for the Wildcats

By Dick Sparrer

Butch Cattolico isn't worried about his Los Gatos football team making the Central Coast Section playoffs this fall.

But he's realistic to know that if the Wildcats lose one more game this season, they just may be sitting home in November for the first time since 1982.

The Cats lost to Wilcox a couple of weeks ago, then dropped a 41-14 decision to Homestead last Friday night to slip to 1-2 in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League and to 3-4 for the year.

"We have three more ballgames to play," he said. "At 6-4 [making the playoffs] should not be much of a problem. But at 5-5 we'd probably have to look at an at-large berth."

But the Gatos coach isn't seriously looking at any of that--not yet anyway. He's just looking at making his Wildcats play better football in their last three games.

"We're going to make some changes," he said. "We're not going where we're supposed go be going. So we're going to look at everybody."

And not just when it comes to personnel. The Gatos coaches will also be looking very closely at their opponents.

"We play Milpitas this week," the coach said. "And we really have to look at it one game at a time, and at the end see where we are."

Where they'll be this Friday night is at Milpitas to play the winless Trojans at 7:30 p.m. But don't be fooled by that 0-3 De Anza Division record, says Cattolico.

"They're a very good football team," the coach said of Milpitas. The Trojans opened the year with four straight wins in nonleague play.

The Cats can't afford to look past the Trojans, because they can't afford another loss if they hope to make the playoffs.

The loss to Homestead was a tough one for Cattolico and his crew--it virtually took the Cats out of the running for the division title.

Homestead lead the league with a 4-0 record and just two games to play. Monta Vista is second at 3-1 after beating Saratoga last week.

The loss dropped the Cats deep into the division standings.

And last Friday?

"I think they're a good football team," Cattolico said of Homestead, "and I don't think we played very well."

"We're not doing the things on the field that we need to do," he added. "That's two weeks in a row we've gotten hurt by teams because we didn't go where we were supposed to go."

Homestead scored first last week, but the Wildcats answered right back with a touchdown to even things 7-7.

Alan Rosa carried three times for 12 yards, and Joel Gremore raced for seven more.

Quarterback Josh Rogers, who hooked up on 11 of 16 passes for 143 yards in the game, hit Reny Townsend for 20 yards, found Gremore for seven and then went 33 yards to Gremore for the touchdown. Rosa's extra point tied the game.

"I thought then that we were starting to look good," Cattolico said.

But Tony Elam, who ran for 248 yards in the win for Homestead, took off on an 82-yard touchdown run, and the Mustangs were back in front.

"But we came out, and I thought we were in pretty good shape," the coach said. But two plays later, the Cats fumbled the ball away, and three snaps after that, Elam broke the same play for a 35-yard TD.

The Mustangs led 21-7 at intermission, but "we came out in the second half after making some adjustments at halftime," Cattolico said. "I felt pretty good about them."

The Cats stopped Homestead and started to move the football. But a couple of quarterback sacks--there were seven on the night for the Wildcats--stopped the drive.

A 54-yard run by Elam set up another Homestead score, and the Mustangs were in control 28-7.

The Cats were trailing 41-7 when John Stengele broke a reverse 28 yards for a fourth-quarter score. Rosa kicked the extra point, and 41-14 was as close as Gatos would get.

Rosa finished the day with nine carries for 35 yards and four catches for 46 more. Gremore snagged six passes for 76 yards and carried three times for 18 yards. Stu Davis and Steve LaBarbera each rushed for 12 yards.

Austin Neale, Doug Miller and Chris Cavanagh shared the team lead in tackles with eight each. Miller had a quarterback sack.

Mike Manson, Austin Glover and Townsend were in on seven tackles each, Carlos Lanuza was in on six, LaBarbera and Enzo Iacomini were in on three each, and Stengele got in on two.