For decades—from the 1930s through the 1970s—Los Gatos and Campbell met each fourth Thursday of November in the annual "Turkey Day" game.

When Campbell closed, and the Central Coast Section playoffs were born, Los Gatos had to find a way to keep the tradition alive. And that meant making the playoffs and advancing at least to the second round.

The Wildcats do it most every year, and they've done it again in 2003. There will be high school football in Los Gatos on Thanksgiving thanks to the Wildcats' 52-13 victory over Alisal on Nov. 21 in the first round of the CCS Division II playoffs.

Well, the game won't actually be played on Thanksgiving Day—Los Gatos will face San Benito on Nov. 28 at 3 p.m.—and it won't exactly be in town—the Wildcats and Haybalers will play at San Jose City College. But Los Gatos will be playing football on Thanksgiving weekend for one more year.

The CCS Division II semifinal game is shaping up to be a good one, too. The Wildcats come in with a 9-2 season record after winning the championship in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League. The 'Balers, meanwhile, are 8-2-1 after finishing second to Palma in the Tri-County Athletic League and opening the playoffs with a 35-28 win over Milpitas.

"San Benito is a good football team," said Los Gatos head coach Butch Cattolico looking ahead to Friday's playoff game. "They're a very good, very disciplined team."

"They're a wing T football team, and they are very precise," he added. "It's a precision-type offense that reminds you of the old Saratoga teams."

Los Gatos counters with a potent offense of its own, as evidenced by 520 yards of total offense in last week's win over Alisal. But it's the Gatos defense that has Cattolico a little concerned.

"We need to pick up our defense a little bit," said the coach. "If we can, we'll be alright."

The Los Gatos defense held Alisal to just a couple of touchdowns last week, but it wasn't the defensive performance that Cattolico had hoped for.

"All in all we played really well [against Alisal]," he said. "The only thing was that we spent a little too much time playing defense. We gave up too many first downs and too much on third-down plays." Alisal ended up running 52 offensive plays in the game.

The coach figures that the Cats can't give up that much to the Haybalers.

"They keep moving the ball and stay on offense a lot," said Cattolico of San Benito.

"They run their offense," he added. "Everybody knows what's happening, but people have trouble stopping it."

As if that's not enough, the coach is impressed with San Benito's defense.

"Defensively, they are very disciplined," he said. "When teams run the reverse, they stay at home. And they get off the ball."

Still, Cattolico likes his club's chances on Friday.

"Right now, we're probably playing as well as we can," he said after last Friday's win over Alisal. "Offensively, I think we're playing extremely well."

The Cats were pretty good on Friday night. Danny Bates ran 22 times for 269 yards and two touchdowns to lead Gatos to a 318-yard rushing night, and Eric Rollin completed 10 of 12 passes for 182 yards and three TDs.

"He's throwing the ball really well," said Cattolico of Rollin.

But it wasn't rushing or passing that gave the Cats their early lead against the Trojans—it was special teams.

The Trojans tried to direct the football away from Bates on the game's opening kick-off. They did—right in the direction of Brian Bolandi. The junior speedster picked up the kick at his own 20 and broke a couple of tackles on his way to an 80-yard touchdown run. Nick Reimnitz kicked the first of his seven extra points, and the Cats led 7-0 12 seconds into the game.

Alisal went three plays and a punt before Bates took over. He ran six times for 43 yards, including a 19-yard run, before scoring on a 1-yard run. Rollin hit Matt Martini with a pass for 12 yards on the drive. Rollin and Martini would hook up six times for 123 yards and three scores in the game.

The Trojans stalled again after the kick-off, but the Gatos scoring machine stalled deep in Alisal territory. The Cats got close enough for Reimnitz, though. The senior drilled a 46-yard field goal to make it 17-0.

Alisal answered with a touchdown, but Nick Perrone shot through to block the attempted extra-point kick. Then Bates went to work again.

On the first play after the kick-off, Bates was off to the races, breaking four tackles on an 80-yard touchdown run. "I was starting to worry," admitted Cattolico.

"But he picked us up in a hurry," said the coach of Bates, who gained 132 yards in the first quarter. "He can do it all."

Runs by Bates, Michael Brienzo and Ivan Batinich and a 16-yard toss from Rollin to Martini set up a 40-yard TD toss from Rollin to Martini to make it 31-6.

A pass interception by Vince Bellotti set up one final Los Gatos score before the half, this one coming on an 8-yard look-in pass from Rollin to Martini. The junior quarterback and flipped a 24-yard pass to Brienzo to set up the score.

Alisal opened the second half with a touchdown, but Los Gatos got that one back and one more to claim the 52-13 win. Rollin hit Martini with a 24-yard TD toss on the first play of the fourth quarter, and Alex Ghanavati capped the scoring with a 1-yard touchdown run. Ghanavati carried six times for 38 yards on the drive and caught a 20-yard pass from Kevin McCarty.

Brienzo finished the night with four carries for 20 yards and a catch for 24 yards. Bates caught two passes for 27 yards.

Batinich and Devin Scott were the defensive leaders for the Wildcats with 13 tackles apiece and Bellotti had nine tackles to go with his interception. Chad Blanchard and Brian Perin were also in on nine tackles each. Chris Danser got in on eight tackles in the win and Perrone had a quarterback sack among his six stops, and he also blocked the PAT try.

Chris Cuthbert and Martini had five tackles apiece and Eric Chen had a sack among his four stops. Will Hartsell also sacked the Alisal quarterback and Charles Talpas, Matt Kinser, Omar Ellahie, Chris Little, Derek Thomas, Liam Smith and Adam Gutto were others in on tackles.