Tough CCS finish for the Los Gatos football team

By Dick Sparrer

For 11 weeks, the Wildcats played as good as any football team in the history of Los Gatos High School. For one week, they didn't.

That was last week when the Cats lost 34-6 to Mitty to see their 1999 season come to a crashing halt a week short of the Central Coast Section Division III finals.

"We had a great year," said Los Gatos coach Butch Cattolico after the devastating loss to the Monarchs on Saturday night.

"I just don't know what happened," he added. "In 27 years, I've never seen a game like this. With this kind of talent, and we just couldn't do anything."

It wasn't that a few players were below par in the Saturday evening semifinal game. It was like everyone had a bad night on the same night. "We dropped passes, we didn't block, we missed assignments," said the coach. "We made more mistakes than we made all year."

For example, the Cats had only one turnover in six games heading into the Saturday contest. They turned the ball over five times against Mitty.

"We just had breakdowns in a whole lot of parts of the game," added Cattolico.

Probably the biggest reason for the loss was that the Cats were flagged for illegal procedure five different times on first down.

"That means that we had first and 15 five times," said the coach. And one time, the Wildcats jumped twice in a row, leaving them to face a first and 20.

Mitty was able to capitalize on most of the Los Gatos mistakes to open up a 17-0 lead at the half and a 27-0 cushion in the third period before crusing to the 34-6 win.

"It should have been 14-7 [at the half]," said the coach.

Mitty took advantage of the first of three pass interceptions to score early in the game, then scored again before the end of the first period. But Los Gatos threatened in the second.

Trent Edwards tossed to Joey Warren for 40 yards down to the Mitty 8. Justin Narragon carried for three yards down to the 5 a play later, but a second-down sack left the Cats facing third and goal at the 11.

Edwards went back to the air, but the ball bounced out of the hands of his receiver and the Monarchs picked it off. The Mitty defensive back raced down the field 80 yards before Vince Caviglia made a touchdown-saving tackle.

The defense stopped Mitty, but the Monarchs booted a field goal to go up 17-0.

Gatos made one more bid to score before intermission. Derek Smith returned a punt 15 yards, then hauled in a screen pass from Edwards for 16 more.

After a couple of penalties, Gatos tried a flea flicker, but fumbled and Mitty took over.

In the second half, Los Gatos went right to the air. Edwards tossed one down the field, but his receivers collided and fell to the turf. Mitty intercepted again and moved in for yet another touchdown.

An Edwards pass to Kevin Krug off a fake punt and a 12-yard run by Matt Torres got Gatos going later in the period, but a fumble ended that threat, and Mitty moved in for another field goal.

Down 27-0, Los Gatos came charging back. Edwards tossed 40 yards to Brian Edwards, and Torres ran for 17 yards to the Mitty 6. Narragon picked up five yards and T. Edwards blasted over from the 1 for the touchdown.

But a third interception set up Mitty for one last touchdown, and Gatos couldn't answer back. The Cats drove to the Mitty 20 before turning the ball over on downs, and the Monarchs ran out the clock for the win.

"They were fired up," said Cattolico of Mitty, "and it looked like we were a little flat."

T. Edwards finished the night hitting on nine of 20 passes for 131 yards, and Torres completed one of three tosses for eight yards. Warren caught three passes for 62 yards, Smith three for 30, Krug two for seven, B. Edwards one for 40 and Ben Winkelman one for eight.

Narragon was held to 56 yards on 15 carries, and Torres ran three times for 37 yards for the Cats.

"Offensively, we just didn't get it done," said Cattolico. "But when you start first and 15 every time..."

Nick Skrabe led the defensive effort with 13 tackles, and Briston Lowry was in on 12. Jared Allen got in on 11 tackles, Markus Willard seven, Steve Smith six and Caviglia five.

Winkelman had a fumble recovery to go with four tackles, and B. Edwards had four stops and a pass interception.

Jon Glage, Ryan O'Gorman, Brandon Chapatte, Jason Rosa and Narragon were also in on tackles.

"They only completed three passes for 11 yards," said Cattolico, "but we just kept giving them the ball near the goal line."

The Monarchs did rush for over 200 yards, most of it on a couple of big plays, but also a good portion coming from fullback Josh Jennings.

"We told the kids that we had to stop the fullback coming straight up the middle," said the coach. "We worked on it all week, but we just didn't stop him. He killed us."

The loss ended a string of 11 victories for the Wildcats, who cruised to the championship in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League. "We had a heckuva season," said Cattolico.

But it might take a while for the Wildcats to appreciate it.

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