"I promised my grandmother I'd score a touchdown for her tonight," he told assistant coach Brad Sanfilippo on the sidelines.

But time was running out for Tam. He had already taken a pass from Alex Rollin to paydirt in the second quarter, but a holding penalty nullified the play. Now the Cats were running up a big lead, and Tam knew the starters wouldn't see the field in the final quarter—they haven't all year.

But Drew Hoffman and Chris Danser—all 517 pounds of them—hammered Saratoga running backs for no gain on three successive plays, and the Falcons had to punt the ball away. And the Los Gatos starting offense took the field for maybe the last time of the night.

Tam was ready. After a 33-yard run by tailback Dennis Freeman, Tam took a handoff on a reserve and went up the middle for 16 yards and a touchdown. His first touchdown was called back—this one wasn't.

Tam had kept his promise, and the Wildcats were well on their way to the 42-13 win that was special on so many different levels.

"That's four undefeated seasons in a row," said head coach Butch Cattolico through a smile at the game's end. That's four straight 10-0 regular seasons for the Wildcats, but that's only part of it.

* The Wildcats have now won 36 games in a row to tie Palma for the Central Coast Section record for most consecutive victories.

* The Wildcats have not lost a home game since 1997.

* Travis Howell, John Allen and the other seniors have never played in a losing game as varsity football players at Los Gatos—and Howell and Allen have been on the varsity squad for three years.

Los Gatos will put that streak on the line this week when the Wildcats host South San Francisco (6-4) on Nov. 22, 7 p.m., in the first round of the CCS Division 3 playoffs.

"They don't take many chances on offense, but they play solid defense and try to stay in ballgames," said Cattolico. "They haven't been out of any of the games they've played this year."

Los Gatos and Terra Nova, both 10-0 this year, enter the postseason as the CCS Division 3 favorites.

"You've gotta look at those two teams because they both can score a lot of points," added the Gatos coach.

The 36th win in the Los Gatos streak was not the prettiest of them all, but it was impressive when the Wildcats finally shifted into gear in the third quarter.

The Cats led 14-0 at intermission, but Saratoga scored on the second play of the third quarter to cut the lead to 14-7.

"The bottom line is that they wanted this football game more than we did," said Cattolico of the Falcons. "The Saratoga kids played their hearts out."

"The important thing, though, is that we played fine in the second half," he added.

Fine is an understatement.

Fireworks exploded in the western sky over the campus a couple of minutes into the game on Friday night. But it wasn't until the third period when the fireworks exploded on the field for the Wildcats.

Los Gatos seemed to wake up after John Griffin's 70-yard touchdown run to open the quarter. The offense, which had sputtered in the first two periods, came to life, and Freeman, Cameron Fee and Tam all scored touchdowns to turn the close game into a runaway.

Brian Miguel returned the kickoff 18 yards to the Los Gatos 37 following the Griffin touchdown; then Freeman went to work with three runs for 28 yards. Rollin tossed 30 yards to Scott Drew; then Freeman went the final five for the touchdown. Nick Reimnitz kicked one of his seven extra points, and it was 21-7.

Then the defense took over. Linebackers Howell and Eric Brown hammered Griffin after a 1-yard gain; then Hoffman and Andrew O'Gorman sandwiched quarterback Brett Granum to force an incomplete pass. Granum tossed another pass to the turf, and the Falcons were punting again.

This time it was Rollin who took over for the Wildcats. The senior quarterback, who had thrown five incomplete passes to open the game, hit Scott Drew for 14, and, after a 16-yard run by Freeman, went to Tam for 14 more. Rollin then threw a strike in the left corner of the end zone to Fee for the touchdown.

"After the first quarter, Rollin played very well," said Cattolico of his quarterback, who finished the night hitting on 10 of 17 passes for 172 yards and a couple of TDs.

But the Cats weren't finished yet. The defense stuffed the Falcons again, and that's when Tam scored to put the Cats up 35-7. Gatos had scored three touchdowns in just over six minutes of clock time to take control of the game.

Los Gatos scored again early in the fourth when Freeman capped another big night for the Cats. Rollin tossed 25 yards to Tam and 13 yards to Brett Cavanagh to set up Freeman for a 6-yard touchdown run.

"Freeman ran hard in the second half," said Cattolico of the senior back who carried 22 times for 146 yards and two touchdowns. "He hits the hole as well as anyone we've had."

And the holes are there because of the dominating play of the men up front—tackles Allen and Hoffman, guards Logan Graff and Matt Rose, center Carter Wallace and tight end Drew.

Los Gatos finished the night with 428 yards of total offense, most of it on Freeman's running and Rollin's passing. But Tam contributed 117 yards on four carries for 52 and three catches for 65, and Howell ran five times for 47 yards.

Drew finished the night with four catches for 56 yards, Freeman had one for 21, Fee had one for 17 and Cavanagh had one for 13.

Hoffman was the defensive leader for the Wildcats with 13 tackles. He also knocked down a pass at the line of scrimmage and hurried Granum into an incomplete toss.

O'Gorman, Danser, Howell and Miguel were in on five tackles each. O'Gorman also recovered a fumble and hurried the Saratoga quarterback, and Danser had two stops in the Saratoga backfield. Miguel had a tackle for a loss. Brown finished with three tackles.

Shaun Sullivan got in on four tackles and Drew forced a fumble and sacked the quarterback.

Andy Betzina had a pass interception to go with a couple of tackles, and Allen had two stops and rushed the quarterback into an errant throw. Ivan Batinich, Cavanagh, David Holtzman, Tam and Nick Perrone were also in on tackles.

Los Gatos had taken the early lead in the game with a touchdown in the first quarter. Drew forced the fumble that O'Gorman recovered, and six plays later Freeman powered over the right side for a 6-yard touchdown run.

Early in the second quarter, a 21-yard run by Tam set up a Rollin to Drew 6-yard touchdown pass. Rollin had two Falcons hanging onto him before lobbing the pass to Drew on the right side.