After all, the Wildcats may have won their last 26 straight games, but they hadn't looked all that great a week earlier in a preseason scrimmage against Independence.

And when the Cats faced a third and six on their first possession of the night on Friday against Aragon, Cattolico knew that the game could go either way.

But senior quarterback Alex Rollin hit tight end Scott Drew for 15 yards and a key first down. And before Cattolico knew it, the Wildcats were up 27-0 and heading to the locker room at halftime.

"Our kids played really well," said Cattolico after Friday's 34-0 win over Aragon.

"Our defense played especially well," he added. "Actually, our defense has been pretty solid for the last couple of years."

The defense was good enough to hold Aragon to just 120 yards of total offense, and 87 of those yards came in the fourth quarter against the Gatos reserves.

"We were far more physical than I thought we were going to be," said Cattolico. "They didn't even make a first down until the fourth quarter."

Los Gatos scored two touchdowns in the first quarter, two more in the second and one in the third before turning the game over to the reserves before the end of the third.

"The kids played really well," added the coach. "The number one thing was that we executed our game plan.

"And this was the best week of practice we've had--#8212;#8212;then we went out and played like that."

The coach will be looking for more of the same this week when the Wildcats travel to Mountain View to take on powerful St. Francis on Sept. 20, 7:30 p.m.

"We'll find out how good we are this week," said Cattolico. "They look awfully good."

St. Francis opened the season with a 28-0 win over Oak Grove last Friday, and "they dominated--#8212;#8212;it was 21-0 eight minutes into the game," said Cattolico.

"It will be a good test for us," added the coach. "And right now, our kids are ready for this kind of test."

The Wildcats came through with an A+ on last week's test against Aragon.

Gatos moved right in for a touchdown on its first possession, thanks to the pass from Rollin to Drew and the running of senior back Dennis Freeman.

"I felt like Dennis was going to break out," said Cattolico. And break out he did, with 25 carries for 149 yards and three touchdowns.

Freeman capped the first drive with a 7-yard touchdown run, and Derek Tam kicked the extra point. Then it was Tam's turn, and he broke a reverse 43 yards for a TD.

After a Gatos fumble, the defense got the ball back in a hurry with a Brian Miguel hit, a Drew strip and an Andy Betzina fumble recovery.

A 15-yard run by Travis Howell and a 9-yard toss from Rollin to Howell set up a 1-yard TD run by Freeman.

Tam picked off an Aragon pass and took off on an apparent 72-yard touchdown run, but it was called back because of a clipping penalty. Rollin went on top to hit Tam with a 42-yard scoring toss, though, and after Nick Reimnitz kicked his second extra point, it was 27-0.

Freeman scored on a 2-yard run in the third period and Reimnitz converted again, and the Cats had their 34-0 lead.

Aragon tried to move, but the Gatos defense continued to stop the Dons cold. An interception in the end zone by David Kleinschmidt ended Aragon's best threat of the night.

"Literally, they couldn't run the ball anywhere," said Cattolico. "[Defense] was our strong suit. But what impressed me the most was our offense."

Freeman led the offense with his 149 yards, and Howell supported with three carries for 24 yards. Ivan Batinich had two carries for 17 yards, Danny Bates and Adam Breslin each carried twice for 15 yards and John Davidge had a run for 14 yards.

Rollin completed 6 of 8 passes for 78 yards, hitting Drew twice for 17 yards and Tam, Howell, Freeman and Cameron Fee with a pass each.

Tam touched the ball three times in the game--#8212;#8212;catching the 42-yard touchdown pass, running 43 yards for a score and returning the interception 72 yards for an apparent touchdown.

Andrew O'Gorman led all Gatos tacklers with seven stops, including a quarterback sack. Howell had six tackles, Shaun Sullivan six tackles and an interception, and Eric Brown six tackles and a sack.

Betzina had four tackles to go with his fumble recovery, and Drew Hoffman had four tackles and a sack. Bates, Drew and Brett Cavanagh also had four tackles each.

Miguel had a sack among his three tackles, Batinich got in on three stops, and David Holtzman, Tam, Matt Kinser, Chad Blanchard, Liam Smith, Kleinschmidt, Bryce Murray, Jon Comeau, Devin Scott and Tom Dittmann were also in on tackles.

Cattolico praised the work of Hoffman in his first game at offensive tackle and also singled out Matt Rose, John Allen, Logan Graff, Carter Wallace, Crew and Howell for their blocking.