Sure the Falcons are rolling along in the midst of a near-perfect season, but the senior quarterback suffered a shoulder injury against Milpitas in Saratoga's third game of the season, then because of the injury had to sit one out on the night the Falcons beat Fremont.

He was back in action for Saratoga's crucial win over Cupertino, but the Falcons kept the ball on the ground most of the night—not exactly the stuff of a quarterback's dream. Still, for a consummate team player like Granum, he could only be patient.

That patience paid off last Friday night. Granum made up for lost time when he hooked up on 6 of 9 passes for 230 yards and three touchdowns to lead Saratoga to a 38-7 win over Monta Vista. Now the Falcons—and their quarterback—seem to be firing on all cylinders as they head down the home stretch.

Saratoga is 6-0-1 for the year and 4-0 in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League heading into the final three games of the regular season.

The Falcons will host Los Altos on Nov. 1, 7:30 p.m., at Los Gatos. After that, it's De Anza Division-leading Los Gatos for a non-league game and then Santa Clara in the game that will likely decision the El Camino Division championship.

Head coach Kurt Heinrich isn't thinking about Los Gatos or Santa Clara right now, though—he wants his Falcons focused on Los Altos.

"They're good," said Heinrich of the Eagles. "They've got an awful lot of talent and they're getting better every week. They play pretty stingy defense, they have a good running back and they have a good quarterback."

But, then, so do the Falcons.

Granum was sensational in Saratoga's win last week.

"Brett did a really nice job of running our offense," said Heinrich. "He threw the ball with ease. He had some really good progressions on his leads."

Phil Spencer pulled in two of Granum's passes for 140 yards, one of them going for an 85-yard touchdown, and Ryan Newberry caught two passes for 33 yards. Dayne McGee had a 50-yard catch for a touchdown and Paul Culbertson had a 7-yard reception for a TD.

Newberry actually got the Falcons on the scoreboard first when he scored on a 9-yard run in the first quarter. Moments later, Granum hooked up with Spencer on an 85-yard touchdown play.

Spencer took off for another score in the second quarter, racing 37 yards for a touchdown to up Saratoga's lead to 18-0 by intermission.

Spencer scored his third touchdown of the night on a 20-yard run in the third quarter. Granum hooked up on TD tosses to Culbertson and McGee before the end of the third and Eric Frederickson kicked two extra points to give the Falcons the lopsided win.

McGee led the ground attack with 79 yards rushing as the Falcons ran up 466 yards of total offense.

But as good as the Falcons were offensively, they were even better defensively.

"Our defense did a great job," said Heinrich. "We put a ton of pressure on their quarterback."

Ryan Hall led the way with three quarterback sacks, and Brent Walter and Javier Meza also led the charge up front. Spencer, Darren Lee and Tom Cummins each intercepted Monta Vista passes.

The coach praised the work of linebackers Adam Sato and T.J. Florence and singled out defensive ends Greg Mow and Mike block for solid efforts.

Culbertson played well at free safety, said the coach, adding that Newberry "made a lot of short tackles out in space, which was crucial for us."