Now, visitors to the Los Gatos version of the Bates Hotel are discovering the same thing.

It's Helm Field at Los Gatos High School, and senior running back Danny Bates is making sure that guests have an unpleasant stay this fall.

Palo Alto stopped off at Los Gatos last Friday night, and the Vikings had a frightening experience in store for them—thanks to a five-touchdown, 255-yard performance by the proprietor of the "Bates Hotel."

"He hits inside, he hits outside," said Los Gatos coach Butch Cattolico of Bates. "He can outrun you or he can run over you."

And he did it all last Friday night to lead the Wildcats to an impressive 41-14 win over the Vikings.

The Vikings came in undefeated—they didn't leave that way. Los Gatos improved to 6-1 for the year with the win and moved into sole ownership of first place in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League with a 4-0 record. Paly slipped to 6-1 for the year and to 2-1 in the division.

"It was a very physical game—both lines played well," said Cattolico. "The different there was Danny. It didn't make any difference how many times they hit him."

"They were in a 6-2, but they didn't stop our running game," added the coach. "They showed it down, but they didn't stop it."

They didn't really slow it down that much. The Cats ran up 312 yards on the ground, working at times behind a six-man offensive line. Tackles Chris Danser and Liam Smith, guards Evan Wynne and Ryan Lecznar and center Danny Starrick make up the normal five-man front for the Wildcats. But in certain running formations, the 320-pound Starrick would move out beside the 316-pound Danser and Matt Furlo would take over at center.

"This was as good of a defensive front as we've seed," said Cattolico of the Paly D line. "So we would run that six-man line in short yardage situations."

The big six—along with tight end Mark Ericson and fullback Ivan Batinich—would open the holes, and the rest was up to Bates.

He carried 38 times to get his 255 yards and five TDs—scoring one running backwards.

"It was just an unbelievable run," said Cattolico of an 18-yard touchdown run by Bates in the third quarter. "He was hit on the sidelines twice, but stayed inbounds. Then he backpedaled the last few yards into the endzone."

But Los Gatos did more than just run the football. Junior quarterback Eric Rollin completed 12 of 17 passes for 161 yards.

"Eric had another real fine game," said Cattolico of his qb. "He is really taking charge out there. He threw the ball extremely well and he was in a rhythm."

Matt Martini was the leader in the pass catching corps with nine receptions for 123 yards. Michael Brienzo had three catches for 38 yards and also carried six times for 30 yards.

"We had better balance [offensively] than at any time this season," said the coach. "We just didn't make any mistakes, and Danny just upped his level of play, as did everyone else."

Cattolico was also pleased with his club's defensive effort, especially the play of the secondary.

"What we didn't do very was get to [their quarterback]," said Cattolico, "but I thought our kids played pretty well defensively, especially our kids in the secondary."

Free safety David Holtzman, cornerbacks Matt Kinser and Martini and strong safeties Vince Bellotti and Omar Ellahie were defensive standouts in the win.

"[Holtzman] was all over the field," said Cattolico. "He did a great job."

All five were knocking passes away all night, and Kinser, Ellahie and Martini each came through with pass interceptions. Charles Talpas also picked off a Paly pass.

Batinich was the defensive leader for the Wildcats, getting in on 12 tackles.

"He was in their backfield all night and tackling guys all over the field," said Cattolico of the senior linebacker. "He had an outstanding game."

Scott was in on seven tackles for the Cats and Kinser finished with six. Talpas, Chad Blanchard, Brian Perin and Eric Chen had five each, and Martini, Ellahie and Holtzman were in on four each. Bellotti added three tackles and Danser, Smith, Nick Gaffney and Chris Cuthbert had stops.

Los Gatos scored on its first possession of the night. A 23-yard pass from Rollin to Martini and a 32-yard run by Bates set up a 1-yard TD run by Bates. Nick Reimnitz kicked the first of five extra points.

The interception by Ellahie stopped a Paly threat later in the period, and the offense went back to work. Rollin threw to Martini for 23 yards and to Brienzo for 11 before hitting Martini with a 35-yard TD toss.

The Vikings scored to cut the lead to 14-7, but Gatos answered right back.

Bates carried six times on a 10-play drive, blasting over fort the 1-yard touchdown run to give the Cats a 21-7 lead at the half.

A deflected Rollin pass was intercepted in the third quarter, and Palo Alto capitalized with a touchdown to cut it to 21-14.

"But one thing I was impressed with was that both times they scored, we took it down the field and scored," said the coach.

This was the 18-yard run that Bates backed into the endzone for a touchdown, making it 28-14.

The Talpas interception and 20-yard return set up another 18-yard TD run by Bates, and the Kinser pick set up a 1-yard touchdown for Bates to close out the scoring.

"This team is slowly winning me over," said Cattolico of his Cats. "The impressive thing about this group is that they seem to improve every week and they step up to meet each challenge."

Los Gatos will visit Mountain View on Oct. 31 for a 2:45 p.m. before facing Saratoga on Nov. 7—in the next game at the "Bates Hotel."