But Los Gatos shut out St. Francis 21-0 last Friday night in Mountain View--and Cattolico is pretty excited.

"I think St. Francis is a pretty good football team," Cattolico admitted after the Friday win.

And the Wildcats didn't just defeat the Lancers--they pushed them around.

"Our kids were moving their kids off the ball," said the coach, "and they were unable to move our kids off the ball."

A year ago, Los Gatos beat the Lancers in a tough 21-6 struggle early in the year, but this season things were much different.

"This year we just went in nose-to-nose with them," said Cattolico, "and we came out on top."

Los Gatos ran its season record to 2-0 with the victory and pushed its string of consecutive wins to 28. The Cats will try to add another notch to that mark when they host Monta Vista on Sept. 27, 7:30 p.m. The Matadors are 1-1 in the young season.

The game will kick off the alumni weekend at Los Gatos High. All alumni will be admitted free to the game, and all former Gatos players are encouraged to fill out information cards and present them to cheerleaders for the announcement of alumni names throughout the game.

The alumni reunion was held the night of the St. Francis game a year ago, but the season comes a week after the Cats blanked the Lancers.

"It was a very physical game--two guys just sluggin' it out," said Cattolico of Friday's game. And the Wildcats delivered the knockout punch with a couple of second-quarter touchdowns.

The clubs battled to a scoreless tie in the first quarter before the Cats hit the scoreboard early in the second.

A 44-yard pass from Alex Rollin to Derek Tam had changed the field position early in the game, and Gatos cashed in after a pass interception by Shaun Sullivan in the second quarter.

Travis Howell had a couple of runs for 12 and 20 yards to set up a 3-yard touchdown run by Dennis Freeman. Nick Reimnitz kicked the extra point, and the Cats were up 7-0.

Both the Wildcats and Lancers had led the entire way in their openers, and the Gatos coaching staff wondered how either team would respond if it was trailing in the game.

"We had talked to the kids a lot about this," said Cattolico, "about the first time one of the teams got behind. We wondered how they would respond."

St. Francis was the first team to get behind, and the Lancers promptly fumbled a snap that Ryan O'Gorman recovered at the SF 20. Danny Bates ran a reverse 18 yards before Freeman went two yards for the score. Reimnitz converted, and the Cats led 14-0 at intermission.

That's how things remained until the fourth period, when the Cats took off a long march down the field for a final touchdown drive that ate up most of the time remaining.

Freeman, who led all ground gainers with 112 yards on 28 carries, picked up 38 yards on seven tries, and Howell had a run for five yards. Tam capped the drive when he took a reverse 37 yards for the touchdown. Reimnitz kicked the extra point to make the final 21-0.

"We went into the game with the idea of having Travis run the ball to take some of the pressure off Dennis," said Cattolico. And the big fullback picked up 54 yards on nine carries. Tam added 60 yards on six tries.

"The kids did a really good job of pounding it," said Cattolico of his club's ground game. Up front, offensive linemen Matt Rose, John Allen, Logan Graff, Drew Hoffman and Carter Wallace "really blocked well."

Rollin stepped up to complete 5 of 6 passes for 76 yards, all of it coming in the first half. Tam had two catches for 57 yards, and Howell, Cameron Fee and Scott Drew each snagged a pass.

Cattolico was pleased with his club's defensive performance in the shutout win, especially with the play of those in the defensive line.

"The kids in the defensive front did a real good job, too," said the coach, praising the work of Allen, Rose, O'Gorman, Brian Miguel and sophomore Liam Smith. He also singled out Hoffman and Drew for their play on the defensive line and Howell and Eric Brown as linebacker.

Hoffman and Howell shared the team lead in tackles with 12 apiece, and Hoffman got in on a pair of quarterback sacks.

O'Gorman, Brown and Drew were in on nine tackles each. O'Gorman had the fumble recovery and Brown and Drew were in on sacks.

Brett Cavanagh had a sack among his eight tackles, Tam had seven stops and Andy Betzina had a sack among his six tackles.

Allen was in on five tackles, Rose and Sullivan four apiece and Miguel three. Sullivan's interception was his second in two games.

Smith, Bates and Nick Perrone were also in on tackles as the Wildcats held the Lancers to just seven first downs in the game.

"The kids are really hustling to the ball," said Cattolico. "These kids are playing as good defensively as any team I've ever been associated with."