Wildcats roll again with win over Bruins

Big game coming up with Milpitas Friday

By Dick Sparrer

Ryan Johnson, Nick Crafford and the rest of the guys in the Los Gatos offensive front were greeted by a string of Santa Clara defenders the first time they jogged the line of scrimmage last Friday night.

The Bruins were trying something different, and it wasn't quite the defensive look that Butch Cattolico and his Wildcats expected.

"They came out in a brand new defense," said Cattolico of the Santa Clara alignment. "They came out in a 6-2 with their free safety up on the line of scrimmage."

It was an attempt by Santa Clara to cross up the unbeaten Wildcats. And it caused the Cats so much trouble it took them all of five plays to score their first touchdown of the night.

Los Gatos went on from there to destroy the Bruins 49-0 behind the pinpoint passing of Trent Edwards and hard running of Chris Willard ... and behind another outstanding effort by the offensive line.

With Johnson and Evan McDonald at guards, Crafford and John Allen at tackles and newcomer Carter Wallace at center, the Wildcats rolled to seven touchdowns and over 480 yards of total offense--most of it coming before the end of the third quarter.

The Friday night win pushed the Los Gatos record to 4-0 in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League and to 8-0 for the season. It marked the 21st straight win for the Wildcats and the 31st straight regular season victory.

The last time Los Gatos lost a regular season football game was on the final night of the 1998 season. The Cats lost that night to Milpitas, a fact that Cattolico will remind his club as they prepare to take on the Trojans this week.

"This is a big game for us if we don't want to share the championship with anyone," said Cattolico, whose Cats will host the Trojans on Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m. "We have a lot to lose if we don't play good football on Friday night."

Milpitas enters the game as the second-place club in the circuit with a 4-1 record. The Trojans are 6-2 for the year.

"It's going to get interesting this week," added the coach. "They've got the most speed of anybody in the league and defensively, especially with their speed in the secondary, they don't give up many big plays."

"Offensively, they have five kids who run the ball really well," he added. "Their quarterback is an excellent thrower, and they have three good receivers. They're going to stretch you in a lot of different directions.

"We've got to make sure we take care of business."

The Wildcats certainly did just that last Friday night, opening up a 35-0 lead before intermission and rolling from there to the 49-0 win over the Bruins.

Santa Clara's attempt to bring everyone up to stop the run seemed to backfire. Edwards picked the defense apart by completing 13 of 18 passes for 224 yards and three touchdowns (he now has 23 touchdown passes this season), and the offensive line pushed the Bruins around enough for Gatos running backs to ramble for 257 yards.

Cattolico was especially pleased with the work of Wallace, the Gatos junior center.

"He had a great game," said the coach of Wallace, who has taken over for the injured Dan Holtzman (out for the season with a knee injury suffered against Los Altos). "They had an outstanding noseguard."

Despite Santa Clara's new look, Los Gatos came out running in the game. Willard, who led the Cats with 93 yards on 13 carries, rambled for seven yards on the first play of the night. Willard had returned the opening kick off 45 yards to get the Wildcats started.

Edwards went to the air to hit Scott Cohn for nine yards and Gino Gingery for 19 more. Willard then ran three times for the final eight yards, including a 2-yard touchdown run.

Anthony Frangadakis kicked the first of his seven extra points. The Gatos kicker is now 50 for 50 this fall.

It didn't take Edwards long to recognize what the Bruins were doing, and when the Cats got the ball back three plays and a punt later the senior quarterback tossed a 61-yard touchdown pass to Derek Tam.

An 11-yard pass from Edwards to Cohn, a 24-yard run by Willard and a 17-yard dash by Tam set up the next Gatos touchdown, a 3-yard plunge by Willard early in the second quarter.

Cohn, who had a big night with nine catches for 92 yards, pulled in a 14-yard toss from Edwards later in the period to set up a 26-yard TD toss from Edwards to Gingery.

The Wildcats added one more touchdown before intermission when Edwards hooked up with Gingery for 28 yards and a score.

Santa Clara threatened for the first time in the game after a 56-yard kick off return to open the second half. But two plays later the Bruins fumbled, and Tam recovered with a 15-yard return.

An 11-yard run by Charlie Clark and three Edwards passes to Cohn for 37 yards set up Willard for a 1-yard TD.

That marked the end of the night for the Los Gatos starters, but it wasn't the end of the scoring for the Cats. Eric Brown intercepted a pass to give the Wildcats the football, and back-up quarterback Alex Rollin hit James Furlo with a 29-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter.

Like Cohn, Tam had a big night for the Wildcats. He carried twice for 54 yards, caught a 61-yard touchdown pass, recovered a fumble and got in on five tackles. Gingery finished with three catches for 73 yards and two touchdowns and added a quarterback sack defensively.

Brian Miguel picked up 51 yards four carries, despite having a 63-yard touchdown run called back. Clark chipped in with 35 yards on three tries.

Jon Espe was the defensive leader for the Wildcats. The big senior had three sacks among his nine tackles. Ken Heimer supported with eight tackles in the win.

Drew Hoffman finished with a sack among his six tackles. Ben Miller got in on five stops and Travis Howell, Chris McMorrow and Stuart Gordon were in on four tackles each.

Cohn and Shaun Sullivan had three tackles apiece and Andrew O'Gorman had two tackles and recovered a fumble.

Frangadakis, Furlo, Willard, Clark, Andrew Milman, Brett Cavanagh, Perry Richardson, Theron McCarty, David Towson and Scott Drew were others in on tackles.

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