Saratoga News
Sports
Saratoga plays Los Gatos tough, but falls
By Dick Sparrer
Pick out a theme: David and Goliath, the tortoise and the hare, Stanford and USC.
All three seemed to fit the Saratoga-Los Gatos football match-up that was scheduled last Friday night at Los Gatos' Helm Field.
Los Gatos was certainly the heavy favorite going into the game. The only mar on the otherwise perfect record for the Wildcats was a tie against highly-rated St. Francis, and the Cats were coming off of a lopsided 42-7 victory over powerhouse Palo Alto.
Few anticipated a close game, despite Saratoga's solid 3-1 record this season. And no one was predicting an upset on the magnitude of what David, the tortoise and Stanford accomplished.
Well, there was no upset on Friday night, but there was a football game--a darn good football game thanks to an impressive showing by the Falcons who gave the bigger, more physical Wildcats all they could handle before dropping the 49-21 decision in the non-league game.
"You've got to give them credit for what they did," said Los Gatos coach Butch Cattolico of the Falcons, who trailed just 21-14 with 3:03 left in the first half. "They played harder than we did."
The Falcons did some good things in the game, like stopping Los Gatos on its first possession, then matching the Cats' first touchdown with a score of their own.
"I loved the way we competed," said Saratoga coach Kurt Heinrich. "I'm really happy with our kids."
The loss left the Falcons 3-2 for the year, but Saratoga is now 1-0 in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League and faces a big game this week. The Falcons will host a tough Homestead club on Oct. 12, 7:30 p.m., at Benny Pierce Field.
The Mustangs opened the year with three straight wins before battling Monta Vista to a 14-14 tie a couple of weeks ago. They are now 1-0-1 in league play and 4-0-1 for the year after beating Fremont 17-7 last Friday.
"Hopefully we're not too banged up," said Heinrich after the loss to the Cats. "We came in here tonight hoping we could learn from this game."
The Falcons did more than learn--they taught the Wildcats a thing or two about rivalries.
An excited Saratoga team came out to stop the vaunted Los Gatos offense on its first possession of the night behind big plays by Gabe Essner and Jasper Loren. The Falcons couldn't move after the punt, though, and punted back to the Wildcats, who marched 58 yards on five plays to score.
Saratoga, though, was not intimidated. After a seven-yard run by Keon Ghafouri, Essner shot through the line on a quick hitter and the senior fullback outran everyone on the field for a 73-yard touchdown run. Kris Clark's extra point tied the game 7-7 with 1:34 left in the first period.
Los Gatos scored on its next two possessions to go up 21-7, but there was still plenty of fight in the Falcons. Senior quarterback Kyle Guengerich led Saratoga on a 10-play, 69-yard drive to a touchdown.
"Each week he's getting better and better," said Heinrich of Guengerich. "He's forming himself a special senior year."
Guengerich, who had a 26-yard run and a 33-yard pass completion to Andrew Capek on the drive, finished the night hitting on 9 of 14 passes for 99 yards.
Ghafouri capped the march with a three-yard touchdown run over the left side behind tackle Matthew Hawks and guard Bryan Dodge. Clark's second kick cut the lead to 21-14 with just 3:03 to play before intermission.
Los Gatos scored again before halftime, then opened the third quarter with a touchdown march. In fact, the Cats scored on their first three possessions of the second half to take a commanding 49-14 lead.
Still, there was no quit in Saratoga. The Falcons started from their own 31 and moved the nearly 70 yards in 12 plays to score one last time.
A nine-yard run by Mathew Spencer for a key first down, Guengerich passes for 27 and 11 yards to Capek and five yards to Spencer and an eight-yard run by Timothy Yen set up a nine-yard touchdown run by Spencer. Clark converted a third time, and the 49-21 score stood up as the final.
Essner finished with a net 72 yards on six carries to lead the ground assault for the Falcons. Ghafouri added 53 yards on 12 tries, Spencer ran seven times for 32 yards and Guengerich carried three times for 38 yards with but sacked three times for 13 yards in losses.
Guengerich hit Capek three times for 71 yards, Cullen Bowen three times for 17, Spencer twice for 18 and Matt Keating once for a loss.
Essner was the defensive leader for the Falcons with eight tackles and Loren was close behind with seven. Zack Kowitz and Steven Walker had six tackles apiece, and Ghafouri, Jonathan Yen and Bowen had five each.
T. Yen got in on four tackles, Saumaan Vahabi, Casey Farmer and Scott McKenzie had three each and Spencer, Ashkon Hamidieh, Keating and Justin El Diwany were also in on stops.
