Los Gatos Weekly-Times Everything works for Cats in frosh-soph football win By Dick Sparrer Ever have one of those days? Well, the Los Gatos frosh-soph football team had one of those days--er, rather, nights--last Friday. But it wasn't a bad thing for the young Wildcats. In fact, quite the contrary was true. "It was one of those nights where pretty much everything worked," said Los Gatos frosh-soph football coach Scott Downs after his Cats rolled to a 35-0 win over Homestead. The victory helped the Cats improve to 3-1 in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League and to 5-2-1 for the year. Gatos is currently tied for second in the division with Palo Alto, and the Cats will face those Vikings this week. "They're loaded," said Downs of Palo Alto. "They're very explosive." But the Wildcats are pretty explosive themselves, and they proved it last Friday night against Homestead. The Cats ran up 306 yards of total offense, and that didn't even include an 80-yard punt return for a touchdown by Joey Warren. Gatos took the early lead in the Friday night game when Derek Smith went 12 yards for a first-quarter touchdown. The Wildcats made it 12-0 before the half when freshman quarterback Trent Edwards tossed seven yards to Jason Rosa for a TD. A 16-yard kickoff return by Warren got the Cats started on a touchdown drive to open the third period. Smith capped the march with a 5-yard TD run, then ran for the two-point conversion. Chris Willard went five yards for a touchdown, and Smith ran for a two-pointer to up the Gatos lead to 28-0. Warren capped the scoring when he took a punt return 80 yards for a touchdown. Rosa kicked the extra point that made it 35-0. Smith had a big night for the Wildcats. The sophomore back carried 15 times for 93 yards and also pulled in five passes for 72 yards. Willard supported on the ground with 47 yards on eight tries, and Ryan Downs scooted for 44 yards on nine attempts. Edwards hooked up on eight of 14 passes for 93 yards. Along with the five passes to Smith, Edwards hit Ben Shanker twice for 14 yards and Rosa once for seven yards. Sparking the offense was the play of the guys up front. "Our offensive line did the job," said Downs. "They really got downfield well." The coach praised the work of Joe Lynch, Greg Nielsen, Adam Toeniskoetter, Randy Riley, Nick Crafford and Nathan Bonadies. "Our defense has been carrying us," said Downs. "It was great to have our offense respond." Of course, the defense wasn't bad, either. The Cats held the Mustangs to just 66 total yards in the shutout. "The defense suffocated them," said Downs. Markus Willard led the Cats with five tackles. Matt Benedetti and Jon Espe were in on four stops each and Nick McAlpine and Scott Soucy were in on three each. McAlpine and Benedetti each recovered Homestead fumbles, and were in on quarterback sacks along with Bret Maryon and Kenny Heimer. "The defense was just dominating," said Downs, who also praised the efforts of corners Soucy and Warren. Warren also played a key role in the victory with five kick returns for 123 yards, including the TD run that was a "huge play," said Downs. "It's been real enjoyable to see this group come together," added the coach. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, November 4, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.