Photograph by George Sakkestad
Los Gatos senior Joel Gremore fights for yardage in last weekend's CCS clash against Hill. Los Gatos lost 27-25.
By Dick Sparrer
Thanksgiving has traditionally been a time for high school football in Los Gatos.
In bygone years, Los Gatos and Campbell met annually in the traditional Turkey Day game. And in more recent years, Los Gatos has spent virtually every Thanksgiving weekend playing in the Central Coast Section playoffs. But not this year.
The Wildcats will get Thanksgiving off this year after losing a 27-25 heartbreaker to Andrew Hill in the first round of the CCS Division II playoffs.
"We'll be home for Thanksgiving," said Los Gatos head coach Butch Cattolico, who usually has his club on the field practicing that day in anticipation of a semifinal game that weekend.
"This was our first losing season in 20 years," he added.
The Cats were 5-5 in the regular season, but the playoff loss them 5-6 for the year. And it was a tough loss for the Cats to take.
"We just made a lot of mistakes," Cattolico said. "We had our chances to win the ball game, but we weren't able to run the ball successfully, and that really hurt us."
Seven quarterback sacks, some dropped passes, over 100 yards in penalties and what Cattolico called some questionable officiating also hurt the Cats.
Put it all together, and Los Gatos trailed 14-0 early in the game on a Hill touchdown pass, a fumble returned for a TD and a safety.
"The kids played hard, though," the coach added. "They could have given up, but they hung in there."
Gatos went to work in the second quarter. Hill had just scooped up a fumble and raced in for a touchdown, then took advantage of a bad punt snap for a safety to take a 12-0 lead. Joel Gremore ran for three yards and Alan Rosa carried for nine and a first down.
Josh Rogers appeared to hit Jeremy Malander with a touchdown pass, but a penalty nullified the play.
Rogers came back to Malander for 25 yards and hit Reny Townsend for 17 more to give the Cats a first-and-goal at the seven.
Another penalty pushed Gatos back to the 12, but Rogers tossed to Walker Pearce-Percy for 11 yards, then snuck the last yard for the TD. The extra-point kick was blocked, which would become a big factor later in the game.
The defense stopped the Falcons cold, and the Cats took over again late in the half.
Rogers hit Gremore for 20 yards and Pearce-Percy for 20 more. His apparent TD toss to Townsend was called back, but he came back with a 25-yard scoring toss to Gremore to cut the lead to 14-12.
Cattolico decided to go for two, but Gremore slipped in the wet end zone and the ball sailed over his head.
Gatos stopped Hill cold for two plays after the second-half kickoff, but a third down pass went for a touchdown.
Rogers, who hooked up on 18 of 32 passes for 365 yards and three touchdowns in the game, went right to work, though. He hit Malander with passes of 20 and 34 yards, then found Gremore for 15.
The quarterback was sacked for a 19-yard loss, but got up to hit Rosa for 12 yards and Malander for 30 yards and a touchdown. Rosa kicked the extra point, and it was 21-19 in the third period.
Hill started moving the ball in the fourth quarter and faced a fourth-and-nine at the Los Gatos 18. The quarterback scrambled, then hit his big fullback, Michael Geeter, with a touchdown pass and a 27-19 lead.
Gatos couldn't move after the kickoff, but Gremore boomed a 59-yard punt to the Hill six. The Falcons went three plays and a punt, and the Cats had good field position at the Hill 37.
Rogers went 17 yards to Rosa, then hooked up with Malander for 20 yards and a touchdown.
Once again the Cats went for two, but they didn't make it easy on themselves. Gatos jumped offsides, and the penalty pushed the Cats back to the eight.
Rogers went to the air and hit Pearce-Percy in the end zone, but he landed out of bounds, and Los Gatos still trailed by two.
The Wildcats had one final chance with the football when they took over deep in their own territory with no timeouts and only a minute left to play.
Rogers tossed to John Stengele, who handed off to Rosa for a 14-yard gain. Then Rogers and Gremore hooked up for 35 yards to the Hill 40.
Gatos had to get closer to be in Rosa's field goal range, but after one incomplete throw, a Rogers pass was intercepted and the Falcons had locked up the win.
"It was one of those kinds of seasons," Cattolico said after the loss. "We just killed ourselves with penalties. We did not run the ball well at all. We played good run defense, but the the seven sacks hurt us badly."
Charlie Cucco returned from an injury to star defensively for the Wildcats. Cucco finished the night with an incredible 19 tackles.
"He made a big difference," Cattolico said of Cucco. "We felt like with him in there we could do the job."
Austin Neale shared game-high honors with 19 tackles and Carlos Lanuza was in on 15.
"The kids up front did a good job against the run," Cattolico said, praising Cucco, Neale and Lanuza.
Enzo Iacomini and Doug Miller were each in on 12 tackles, and Austin Glover, Mike Manson and Townsend were all in on seven. Gremore, Fred Luminoso, Tom Lopez and Beau Narragon supported with five tackles each for Gatos.
Malander had the big numbers among Gatos receivers with five catches for 164 yards.
Gremore finished the night hauled in five passes for 114 yards and carrying six times for 26 yards, and Rosa had three grabs for 39 yards and five carries for 18 more.
Pearce-Percy grabbed three passes for 36 yards, and Townsend and Stengele each caught a pass.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, November 27, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved