But the Rams were faced with the formidable task of going up against perennial powerhouse and 2002 Division I champion Valley Christian. The Rams have played in the West Valley Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League for the past several years, which is a "C" division, and had faced only one "A" level team all year.

"It was a tough draw," said Willow Glen coach Andy Penwarden, "but it's what we were dealt and we are not complaining."

The experience and depth of Valley Christian was apparent from the very beginning and allowed the Warriors to come away with a 55-7 victory, ending the Rams season and moving No. 3 seed Valley Christian on to face No. 7 Santa Cruz in the semifinals.

"We were overmatched and outmanned," said Penwarden. "Valley Christian has a bunch of talented kids. There were times when we would play good, but we just could not man up with them."

"We gave up a bunch of big plays," added Penwarden. "We would stop them, stop them, give up the big play, stop them, stop them, big play.

"It was tough to lose a game like that, but a lot of personal battles were won and it was great for our kids to see that teams like Valley Christian fall down when they are tackled just like everyone else."

Penwarden believes that it was a "good experience" to not only "play in a CCS game" but to also "have an extra week of practice."

"We were able to get all of our kids into the game, and even all of our sophomores who came up from the [frosh-soph] for the playoffs got in."

Penwarden acknowledges that it will be "a huge benefit to have those kids have that experience and help them next year when they go into the B league." Since the Rams were the West Valley Division champions this year, they will move up to compete in the Santa Teresa Division in 2004.

There will definitely be some challenges in store for the Rams as they move up to the next level of competition. They will lose some "serious playmakers" in seniors Chris Hobbs, Alex Green, Justin Ble, Lalo Garces, Nick Barreto, Ricardo Munoz, and John Gibilisco. They will also miss the experience of seniors Andy Huynh, Justin Jeffries, Tom Lancaster, Vince Lopez, Mario Montes, Robert Oropeza and Avido Sainz.

Since the Rams had such a small number of players, many of the seniors leaving had key roles on both offense and defense, which makes the rebuilding even more challenging for Penwarden and his staff.

"We do have six starters from our defense returning that are juniors and that gives us a good start to build from," said Penwarden.

"Our kids were definitely sad to end the season with a loss, but they were also happy to be in the playoffs," added Penwarden. "We were league champs and are moving out of the C division."

That is definitely something the Rams and their fans can be proud of and something to hang their hat on as they look forward to next year.