By Dick Sparrer
Butch Cattolico was never happier to see a football resting in the arms of a guy wearing orange and black.
But the veteran head coach held back his exurberance momentarily until the officials agreed with his observation--he'd been fooled before.
They way he saw it, sophomore defensive back Chris Cavanaugh had just picked off a Milpitas pass on the final play of the Friday night game.
But only moments earlier, he thought that Reny Townsend had intercepted a Trojan toss, but the officials had ruled it incomplete.
The Trojans ran a couple of more plays, and when their final pass into the endzone was picked off by Cavanaugh. When he saw the officials signal his club's way, Cattolico let go of his emotions--and so did the Wildcats.
"For the first time this year, the kids seemed excited about winning a football game," Cattolico said. "And it was a heckuva game."
That it was.
The Cats went up 7-0, then down 18-7. They went back up 22-18, then back down 24-22. Finally, then went up 30-24, and held on the final seconds as Milpitas threatened to regain the lead.
"It was kind of interesting," Cattolico said with a chuckle.
The Wildcats had gone in front on Steve LaBarbera's third touchdown run of the night, and Josh Rogers threw to Joel Gremore for the two-point conversion that made it 30-24.
But the Trojans moved down the field and faced a second and 10 at the Gatos 20.
Townsend appeared to have an interception on the play. He dropped the ball and the Cats recovered what Cattolico considered a fumble. But the pass was ruled incomplete.
A play later the Wildcats were flagged for pass interference and the Trojans had a first and goal at the 10.
A pass play to the three was nullified because of an offensive PI call, and the Trojans faced a second and goal at the 15 with three seconds left in the game.
That's when Cavanagh stepped in front of the Milpitas pass for the game-clinching interception.
It was a fitting end to the game since the Gatos secondary of Cavanagh, Townsend, Gremore, Alan Rosa, John Stengele and Justin Lehnert had played so well all night.
But it was the power of the Los Gatos offense that really keyed the win. The Cats ran up 385 yards on the ground and 184 more through the air on the road to the win.
And it was the effort of the offensive line that Cattolico figured was the difference in the game.
"They've been the heart and soul of this team," Cattolico said of the boys up front. "We felt like we had to get physical with somebody, and we felt like we had to reestablish ourselves on the line of scrimmage."
They certainly did with that 385 yards rushing behind Carlos Lanuza, Enzo Iacomini, Brian Yip, Tom Lopez and Doug Miller. The coach was also pleased with the blocking of Austin Glover, Walker Pearce-Percy and Vincent Posner, alternating between tight end and fullback.
And it was LaBarbera, Gremore and Rosa doing most of the damage with the football as they worked behind the offensive front wall.
LaBarbera led the way with 181 yards on 21 carries and Gremore came through with 107 yards on 12 tries. Rosa added 66 yards on 10 attempts and Pearce-Percy picked up 28 yards on just four totes.
Not to be outdone, senior quarterback Rogers hooked up on 14 of 21 passes for 184 yards, hitting Gremore seven times for 56 yards and Rosa four times for 61 yards. Townsend had a catch for 43 yards and a touchdown, Pearce-Percy caught one for 16 yards and Anthony Fitzgerald caught one pass for eight yards.
It was Miller who spearheaded the Los Gatos defense that played Milpitas tough. Miller, moving to the lineside linebacker spot, led the Cats with 11 tackles.
"He really played awfully well," Cattolico said of Miller. "He was all over the field."
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, November 6, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved