Los Gatos Weekly-Times Smith, Edwards spark the young Wildcats to victory By Dick Sparrer When the his frosh-soph football team lost to Wilcox in the first game of the league season, Los Gatos coach Scott Downs figured his club would be playing for second place. He was right. Wilcox went on to run the table in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League. The Chargers posted a 6-0 record to win the division championship. But the young Wildcats ran the table, too, and that gave them sole ownership of second place in the circuit. The Cats blanked Palo Alto 23-0, then beat Monta Vista 35-12 to finish the league season 5-1. "We had a good win (against Monta Vista)," said the coach. But the key victory had come a week earlier against Paly. "That was a big win for us," said Downs. "That was the team we were tied for second place with." Derek Smith ran for 140 yards and freshman quarterback Trent Edwards threw for over 100 yards in the win over the Vikings. Los Gatos capped the year with the lopsided win over Monta Vista last Friday night at Cupertino. The Cats run up 364 yards of total offensive in the game. And once again it was Edwards and Smith leading the way. Edwards had a big night, hooking up on 8-of-14 passes for 143 yards and three touchdowns. Smith pulled in three passes for 34 yards and also carried 13 times for 121 yards. "He just is amazing," said Downs of Smith. Smith took off on a 41-yard touchdown run to get the Cats going in the game. Edwards hooked up with Joey Warren for 37 yards and a touchdown, then Smith ran for the 2-point conversion to make it 14-0. It was Warren's only catch of the night, "but what a catch it was," said the coach. "It was a Lynn Swann type of catch. He tipped it up, then made the catch." Smith blasted a yard for another TD to up the lead to 20-0, and Edwards tossed 54 yards to Scott Soucy for a touchdown and hit Kyle Shaffer for the 2-point conversion. Edwards capped the scoring for Los Gatos when he ran 13 yards for a touchdown. Soucy kicked the extra point to give the Cats a 35-0 lead. Soucy ended up with a couple of catches for 80 yards and Ben Shanker caught two passes for 18 yards. Ryan Downs supported Smith on the ground with five carries for 19 yards, and Charlie Clark added 19 yards on nine tries. Chris Willard carried three times for 16 yards. A solid effort up front helped Gatos run up the yardage in the win. Playing well in the offensive line were Joe Lynch, Nick McAlpine, Adam Toeniskoetter, Greg Nielsen, Steve Maxson, Randy Riley, Nathan Bonadies and Matt McNerney. Willard and Mike Vyhnal were each in on seven tackles to lead the Cats defensive. Bret Maryon was in on five tackles and McAlpine had four. Willard, Vyhnal, Maryon and McAlpine each had a quarterback sack in the win. Soucy picked off a Monta Vista pass. The Wildcats finished the year with a solid 7-2-1 record. Their only losses were to powerhouses Wilcox and Oak Grove, and they fought Leland to a tie. "That's a good year," said Downs. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, November 18, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.