The Los Gatos High School field hockey team ended the season the way it started: with a dominant victory.
The No. 2 seed Wildcats extended their ongoing Central Coast Section record with an 18th playoff championship, rolling to a 3-0 win over No. 4 seed St. Francis on Nov. 12 in the Division I title match at Los Altos High. With 10 seconds remaining and the outcome long decided, the 60-plus players on the Los Gatos side started the countdown.
“It was surreal in that moment,” standout senior Leaya Cleary said. “It kind of felt like a dream.”
Reality was better than a dream for the Wildcats, who finished the season 22-1. However, their record doesn’t begin to encapsulate their sheer dominance. To wit: Los Gatos outscored its opponents 176-4—no, that’s not a typo—while posting 21 shutouts in 23 of its matches.
A year ago, the Wildcats lost in the CCS quarterfinals, just the third time they failed to reach at least the semifinals since coach Henry Reyes took over the program in 1992.
“Last year, we lost in the quarterfinals and that hit all of us really hard,” senior attacker Kendall Sutherland said. “I’m super proud of the team for coming back and having no one score on us in league. Winning it all made all the hard work rewarding.”
Sutherland, Zoe Shyba and Cleary scored the Los Gatos goals, all in the final 6 minutes, 44 seconds in the second quarter. Sutherland started the goal-scoring binge by scoring on a penalty stroke, a laser shot that bounced off the St. Francis goalie’s glove before going into the cage.
In the 29th minute, Shyba outworked several other players to the ball and poked in a rebound after Los Gatos unleashed a barrage of shots inside the circle. The Wildcats delivered the dagger in the final seconds of the first half. They drew a short corner before the first-half horn sounded, allowing them to set up for one final offensive attack.
Cleary received a pass and rifled a shot past the St. Francis goalie, giving Los Gatos a commanding 3-0 lead entering halftime. Los Gatos had induced eight short corners up until that point, coming up empty every time. Cleary was the catalyst in setting the tone early, giving the Wildcats a one-sided time of possession advantage. Their offensive attack was relentless, keeping St. Francis on its heels for the majority of the contest.
The Lancers never crossed midfield in the opening quarter, as Cleary continually knifed through the heart of the St. Francis defense.Though the Lancers finally started to show signs of life at the start of the second quarter, it wasn’t long before Los Gatos reasserted its dominant time of possession.
Cleary credited her teammates and coaches for putting her in a position to flourish.
“Obviously, my teammates get to the right spots, which helps our possession game,” she said. “And Henry and the coaches give you the confidence, belief and encouragement to keep going and get to the goal.”
Statistically speaking, this was no doubt one of the stingiest defensive teams in CCS history. Cleary said Leighton Ozawa, Ann-Katrin Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, Emma Jackson, Stella Musser, Rowan Landis and goalie Emma Barrier were key players in the team’s ability to absolutely shut down the opposition.
As part of the 24 seniors on the squad, Cleary and Sutherland were intent on cementing their place in Los Gatos field hockey history.
“All of us really wanted to end on a good note,” Sutherland said. “We wanted this so bad, and that kind of drove us to success. The biggest difference and one of the biggest impacts was seeing our chemistry grow throughout the season.”
The Wildcats’ only blemish on an otherwise spotless resume came in a 3-2 loss to St. Ignatius in a Santa Clara Valley Athletic League crossover game on Oct. 30, a result that gave SI the top-seed in the playoffs and Los Gatos the No. 2 seed.
The Wildcats had a week in between the SI game and the start of the postseason, allowing them to display their championship mettle. Los Gatos proceeded to defeat Christopher, Mitty and St. Francis by a combined margin of 7-0 to win the championship.
“We used the St. Ignatius game as motivation to practice even harder and get ready for our next games,” Cleary said. “We were also grateful it wasn’t the end. It made us kind of realize how easily everything could’ve ended just like that.”
While Reyes is quick to give credit to the players, the athletes in turn emphasize the importance of the coaching staff in the program’s unparalleled run of success.
“The coaches care so much about this program,” Sutherland said. “And Henry cares a lot about the sport and he cares a lot about his players. He was very happy and proud of us.”
Lydia Chun received the team’s Steve Stearns sportsmanship award in the postgame ceremonies. As with any perennial power, Los Gatos has a few traditions of its own. After every CCS championship match, the team eats at T-Bird’s Pizza and reflects on the season.
Taylor Swift’s “Long Live” is the team’s theme song, often played at the end of the season.
“You get emotional listening to that song and thinking about the team,” Cleary said. “It signifies the end for all of us, especially the seniors.”
The team’s Senior Night Game—a 2-0 win over Mitty on Oct. 27—served as one of the team’s defining moments of the season.
‘The energy that we showed and how we worked together as a team really kicked through,” Cleary said. “I think at that moment everyone knew we were going to take this all the way.”
