The Wildcats did all of that in the 2002 season. It's just that the St. Francis Lancers won the CCS Division 3 championship, too.

Los Gatos and St. Francis battled to a 21-21 tie in the section title game last Friday night at the Wilcox field in Santa Clara. And since there are no tiebreakers played in the CCS championship games, the two teams were crowned co-champs.

The tie was something of a disappointment for the Wildcats, who took a 38-game winning streak into the game. But it does little to diminish the success of the '02 Los Gatos football team.

"We reached all the goals we planned to reach this year," said Cattolico. "They had a great season. I'm very proud of these kids."

Los Gatos posted a 12-0-1 record that included a 6-0 finish in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League. And they came within inches of going 13-0 when a 47-yard field goal attempt by Nick Reimnitz sailed a little left with no time left to play in the game.

"He likes to kick from the left hash a little more," said Cattolico. "We tried a couple of times to go left, but then we knew we just had to get 10 more yards."

The attempt came just a minute after St. Francis tried to get the lead with a 40-yard field goal. The Lancers had taken possession on a pass interception at the Gatos 25 with just 2:43 left to play. But Andrew O'Gorman and Drew Hoffman socked fullback William Taufoou for no gain on first down, and Brett Cavanagh dropped Daniel Descalso after a yard gain.

After Ivan Batinich and John Allen teamed to stop Taufoou at the 23, Ryan Lee, whose kickoffs had been soaring deep into the end zone all night, came on for the field goal try. But he shanked the attempt, and the Cats took over at their own 20 with 1:01 left in the game.

A pass interference penalty followed a 3-yard run by Dennis Freeman, a 12-yard dash by Derek Tam and a 5-yard scramble by Alex Rollin, and the Cats had moved the ball to the St. Francis 45-yard line.

Rollin twice tried to throw left to get the Cats into field goal range, but both passes fell incomplete. The quarterback then went right to hit Tam for 10 yards to the 35. With just 7.7 seconds left, Reimnitz trotted onto the field for a long 52-yard field goal attempt.

Reimnitz, perfect on extra point kicks this season, had not been called upon to try a field goal since the previous 12 Gatos games ended in lopsided decisions. He drilled a beauty of a kick, but it dropped just short and to the left as time ran out.

But a flag for roughing the kicker gave Reimnitz another try from five yards up. He tried again--it was long enough, said official Phil Beltran, but slightly wide left.

And the game was a tie.

Los Gatos outgained St. Francis 320-211 in total offense and held the Lancers to just 61 yards in the second half, but the Wildcats could just match the two SF touchdowns.

"You've got to give them credit," said Cattolico. "They did all the things against us that we would do against ourselves."

Rollin led the Los Gatos offense, hitting on 18 of 23 passes for 176 yards and two touchdowns. He completed all nine of his first-half tosses.

"Eric had a great game," said Cattolico.

St. Francis scored on its first possession of the night, but Los Gatos answered right back. Brian Miguel returned the kickoff 36 yards to the Gatos 37-yard line, and Rollin led the Cats on a 12-play, 64-yard drive.

Rollin completed four passes for 31 yards, including a 13-yarder to Travis Howell, to set up Freeman for the score.

Freeman ran behind Allen and Logan Graff on the left side for 12 yards before following center Carter Wallace and right guard Matt Rose for a 1-yard touchdown run. Reimnitz converted, and it was tied 7-7.

The Lancers drove right back down for another score, but Gatos answered with a 16-play, 80-yard touchdown drive.

Rollin hit Tam for 12 yards, Scott Drew for six, Freeman for 11 and Cameron Fee for 12 before tossing a 28-yard touchdown pass to Tam with 1:29 left in the half. Reimnitz tied it 14-14.

The clubs opened the second half by trading a couple of punts each and Gatos was losing the battle of field position.

"We were backed up a lot in the second half," said Cattolico.

Ultimately, a pass interception deep in Gatos territory set up a St. Francis touchdown, and the Cats were behind again.

But once more they battled back with a 16-play, 80-yard drive. Rollin hit Tam with three passes and Freeman with one for 11 yards. But it was Fee's two catches--one for 13 yards and the other for 18--that really kept the drive alive.

Rollin found Drew in the end zone, and the tight end made a great fingertip grab of a bullet pass for five yards and the score. Another Reimnitz kick tied it 21-21, and that's how it would wind up.

Tam finished the night with eight catches for 73 yards and seven carries for 32 yards, and Freeman led the ground attack with 80 yards on 22 carries and he had two catches for 22.

Fee snagged three aerials for 50 yards, and Drew caught three for 18. Howell had a catch for 13 yards and also carried five times for 20 yards.

Hoffman, who served double duty at offensive tackle and defensive end, led the Cats defensively with 11 tackles. Shaun Sullivan was in on seven tackles, and Howell and Allen had six apiece. Allen had a quarterback sack.

Batinich and Tam supported with five tackles apiece for the Cats, and Drew, Eric Brown, O'Gorman, Cavanagh and Miguel had four each.

Andy Betzina was in on three tackles, and David Holtzman and Rollin were also in on stops.

It was Rollin who made the tackle after Tam threw the interception on the attempted flea flicker late in the game.