Eight days after a virtuoso performance in blasting Wilcox High to win the Central Coast Section Division I playoff championship, the Los Gatos High football team wasn’t exactly hitting on all cylinders in its CIF NorCal 2-A Championship Bowl Game against El Cerrito High on Dec. 2.
The Wildcats entered halftime trailing 6-0, but it probably should’ve been worse, as they managed a meager 47 yards of total offense compared to the Gauchos’ 147. Wildcats coach Mark Krail said the coaching staff had a simple message for the players at halftime.
“We said that was probably the worst [half] of football we’ve played in two months, and we were down [only] 6-0,” he said. “I said we’ve got nothing to panic about. We’ve got to clean some things up, let’s go play the way we can, and we still made some mistakes in the second half. But doggone, these guys just continued to fight and got the job done.”
Indeed, Los Gatos’ offense finally started to get in rhythm, the defense was stout and El Cerrito self-imploded with penalties. The Wildcats (12-2) prevailed, 14-6, to advance to their first-ever CIF State Championship Game contest.
They play Central Valley Christian of Visalia (14-1) at Pasadena City College on Dec. 9 for the State 2-A title. Kickoff is 7pm. Though Krail has plenty of confidence in his team, this year’s postseason run has been nothing short of mesmerizing.
And now, a golden opportunity to earn the program’s first State title.
“I’m in shock a little bit, you know, what are we really doing,” Krail said. “I’m just happy for the guys, that’s the emotion. This run we’ve been on is just incredible as a group, and it’s a great group of kids. And I know every coach says that about their group, but this one is truly that group.”
Early on, El Cerrito had its way with Los Gatos. The Gauchos took the game’s opening possession and plowed through the Los Gatos defense, amassing 59 rushing yards as part of a 12-play, 80-yard drive that resulted in a touchdown.
However, the Wildcats defense didn’t surrender a single point the rest of the way, and the offense was able to pick things up in the second half. After carrying the ball just five times for four yards in the opening half, Boxer Kopcsak-Yeung got rolling in the third and fourth quarters, finishing with 53 yards rushing, often gaining yards at crucial moments to extend drives.
His 11-yard TD run accounted for the game-winning points with 6 minutes, 20 seconds remaining. Just one play earlier, Kopcsak-Yeung was tackled for a 10-yard loss, but El Cerrito was called for a 15-yard unnecessary roughing penalty that brought the ball to the 11-yard line.
On the very next play, Kopcsak-Yeung ran behind left guard with a clear path to the end zone. Jaylen Thomas accounted for the Wildcats’ first score, a 11-yard TD reception with 1:55 left in the third quarter. The play was a thing of beauty, with AJ Minyard taking a quick three-step drop before rifling a tight spiral to Thomas just beyond the left end zone pylon.
The ball was in a spot where only Thomas could catch it, and yet the multi-position senior still twirled his body acrobatically to make the catch. After a slow start, Minyard completed four of his final five passes, including three consecutive in one stretch. Los Gatos used Thomas in the Wildcat formation three times, at wide receiver he had three catches and on special teams he completed a 24-yard pass on a designed fake punt.
“He’s such a good athlete and we like the ball in his hands,” Krail said. “We obviously all know he’s a special player and we lean on him a lot.”
In what was a recurring theme of the game, El Cerrito helped seal its own fate with ill-timed penalties, getting flagged 15 times for 120 yards. Two plays before Thomas’ TD reception, the Gauchos were called for a holding penalty in the secondary, negating a sack that would’ve forced a turnover on downs.
Krail was proud of how the team responded after a mistake-filled first half that featured a handful of dropped passes and ineffective offense.
“You’re going to have games like this where you’re struggling and your backs are against the wall,” Krail said, “and how do you respond? And I’ll take my guys any time.”
The Los Gatos defense allowed only 101 yards in the second half, and Nate Goldsbury sealed the outcome with an interception with 10.4 seconds before taking the ball to the Wildcats 39-yard line. Goldsbury, Jake Gerber, Lyndon Bailey, Spencer Burg, Scott Garwood and Henry Masters were just a handful of the several standouts defensively.
Masters, a two-year starter at inside linebacker, said the team enjoyed the victory because they didn’t receive the expected test vs. rival Wilcox.
“We didn’t get a dogfight in the CCS championship, so we were waiting for our CCS championship dogfight, and we got it tonight,” he said. “We were leaning on them [El Cerrito] and their big guys were playing both ways up front, so I think we knew in the second half they were going to get tired and lanes were going to open up. It just worked out that way.”
The grind-it-out game reminded Krail of the team’s 13-point victory over undermanned Burlingame High (3-8) on Oct. 19.
“We kind of played an ugly game that night and we got a 19-6 win, and it was kind of a similar feeling,” he said. “We weren’t clicking. Normally, we get a little rhythm going on offense and tonight we struggled to get that rhythm going. It was kind of reminiscent of that, it was a similar score, similar outcome. You know you’re going to have nights like that, and oftentimes when teams have nights like tonight, they lose. Yet we were able to keep them off the scoreboard the last three quarters and came home with a win. It’s great.”
