But the Falcons had just beaten Santa Clara 35-16 to clinch the championship in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League, Granum had just carried the football 11 times for 117 yards and two touchdowns, and that one pass he threw? It went for a touchdown.

So was Granum disappointed after Friday's game? Well, if he was, the ear-to-ear smile covering his face was a pretty good way to hide it.

Granum and his teammates were in a mood to celebrate after winning the league championship—the first for Saratoga head coach Kurt Heinrich.

"This feels great," said Granum after the win. "It's been nine years since we've won a league championship. Just to bring back the tradition is great."

By winning the title, the Falcons have qualified for the Central Coast Section playoffs. Saratoga is seeded No. 2 in CCS Division IV and will open the playoffs with a home game at Los Gatos against Santa Cruz on Nov. 22, 7 p.m. The Falcons are 8-1-1 for the year and the Cardinals come into the game 6-4.

Saratoga earned its place in the playoffs with a 6-0 finish in the El Camino Division, thanks to the Friday win over the Bruins.

"This is a bunch of gutsy kids, and they've got a lot of character," said Heinrich. And on Friday afternoon, they had quite a few yards of total offense.

The Falcons ran up 374 yards—363 of it on the ground—as they rolled to the win over the Bruins.

Phil Spencer and Granum led the ground show. Spencer finished with 16 carries for 139 yards and two touchdowns, and Granum supported with his 117 yards—including a 48-yard touchdown run on a broken play in the fourth quarter that broke the backs of the Bruins.

A slippery football was mishandled on the snap, but Granum picked up the ball on a bounce and headed up field.

"I saw a huge hole so why not?" said Granum, who raced straight up the field for 48 yards and the score.

The touchdown gave Saratoga a 35-10 lead and virtually locked up the win on the wet Friday afternoon. But it was a game the Falcons seemed to have control of most of the day.

Saratoga took the early lead on a 9-yard touchdown run by Granum in the first quarter. Eric Frederickson kicked the first of his five extra points, and the Falcons led 7-0 with 1:11 left in the first period.

The Bruins answered with a field goal in the second quarter to cut the lead to 7-3, but as the rains started the fall Saratoga came storming right back.

An 8-yard run by Spencer on a big fourth-down play kept a Saratoga drive alive, and Spencer capped the 9-play, 59-yard march with a 30-yard touchdown run.

Saratoga scored again before the half on a 14-yard run by Spencer, and the Falcons were up 21-3 at intermission.

A fumble recovery set up Santa Clara's next score, a third-quarter touchdown that cut the lead to 21-10. But once more the Falcons answered right back.

A 23-yard kick-off return by Spencer, a couple of Spencer runs for 29 yards and an 18-yard run by Ryan Newberry off a brilliant option pitch from Granum took to the Falcons to the Santa Clara 11-yard line. That's when Granum threw his only pass of the day—a scoring toss to tight end Tom Cummins off a play-action fake.

"We were talking about it the whole game," said Granum of the pass. "We called it there and it was wide open. It was a great call by the coaches."

If that touchdown didn't break the backs of the Bruins, the 48-yard TD run by Granum three minutes later certainly did.

Spencer and Granum led the ground attack for Saratoga in the win, but Dayne McGee supported with 53 yards on 16 tough carries and Newberry picked up 39 yards on seven tries.

Leading the charge up front for the Falcons were tackles Augie Lagemann and Chris Chavez, guards Adam Sato and Matt Greene and center Mark Bertelsen.

Sato, Ryan Hall, Spencer, Newberry and Javier Meza were the defensive leaders for Saratoga in the win.

Sato led the way with eight tackles and Hall added seven. Sato had a tackle for a loss and Hall had three stops in the backfield, including a couple of quarterback sacks. Spencer and Newberry were in on six tackles apiece and Meza had five. Newberry intercepted a pass and sacked the quarterback.

Mark Denari, Darren Lee and Brent Walter had four tackles each. Walter had a sack. Kyle Stoffers, T.J. Florence, Tom Cummins and Paul Culbertson were other defensive leaders for the Falcons. Cummins also had a sack.

Mike Block, Greg Mow, Greene and Jeff Lyu were also in on tackles.