By earning a spot in the Central Coast Section Division I field, the Los Gatos High football team has proven itself to be one of the elite squads in the section this season.
Now the No. 6 seed Wildcats (10-0) will find out how they fare against the best of the best when they play “host” to No. 3 Bellarmine (7-3) on Friday at 7pm. Even though the Bells are the higher-seeded team, the game was moved to Los Gatos High after it was originally scheduled to be at Willow Glen High.
Bellarmine usually plays its home games at San Jose City College, but SJCC is requiring proof of Covid-19 vaccination status and CCS officials wanted the game to be played at another site, per the San Jose Mercury News. So, after much discussion from both schools, the game was eventually moved to Los Gatos High, where the Wildcats and their fans will be on the visitor’s sideline and bleacher seats, respectively.
“It’ll be a little adjustment for our fans and players, but I think it turned out to be a strangely positive thing for us,” Wildcats coach Mark Krail said. “Honestly, I thought we’d have to get on a bus and to not have to get on a bus is a really nice thing. We’re kind of in our familiar routine if you will so that is something we’re happy about for sure.”
Krail said the team is eager for the challenge of playing a top-tier school from the West Catholic Athletic League. Even though Los Gatos has played some solid teams this season, its “closest” game was a 21-point win over Liberty of Brentwood. Bellarmine, which finished in a tie for third in the powerhouse WCAL, will surely present the Wildcats with their stiffest challenge of the season.
“First of all, you can tell they’re well coached,” Krail said. “You watch film long enough and you can figure out what teams line up correctly and handle their assignments. And you can see quickly on film that the Bellarmine guys get lined up and are playing at a speed that is really fast. They’re battle tested, they’ve played some of the best teams in Northern California the last several weeks and our schedule hasn’t been as daunting. They’re going to play at a level that’s pretty high. Our guys are very capable of playing at a high level—it’s just a matter of whether we’re able to on Friday.”
Out of all the matchups in this game, Krail pointed to the team’s defense as being essential to the outcome. Los Gatos has allowed just two touchdowns in the last five games and has played stout defense for the majority of the season. Nicolas Ramos, Bennett Grado, Ryan Vernale and Tate Schweitzer have been stalwarts on the defensive line, allowing linebackers Jake Ripp, Lucas White, Ethan Currie and Jack Saul space to fly around and act like heat-seeking missiles in making tackles.
Luchi Casale has also been key playing a hybrid defensive end/linebacker role, making plays “all over the place,” Krail said. The secondary of cornerbacks Quinn Merritt and Will Dal Porto and safeties Landon Heard and Jaylen Thomas have been ballhawks and provided blanket coverage on the perimeter and in the seams.
“What sets us apart—and we’ll see if it holds up going forward—is the speed our defense plays at,” Krail said. “We’re not super big, but we get off the ball and we’re going to fly around which has worked really well for us so far. Our strength all year has been on defense. We’re not super sophisticated at what we do, but we fly around pretty well and I expect nothing less on Friday night.”
Bellarmine’s offense is dynamic which means Los Gatos’ defense will have to be at its best to slow the Bells down.
“Their offense is pretty creative and they’re not the Bellarmine of old (three yards and a cloud of dust run-heavy offense), that’s for sure,” Krail said. “They spread the ball around and they’ve got good athletes.”
Even though the defense has been Los Gatos’ best unit, the offense has been stellar as well. The Wildcats are putting up 42 points per game with quarterback Jake Boyd at the helm.
Boyd is averaging 170 yards passing per game and has 22 touchdowns to just four interceptions. Los Gatos utilizes a handful of players for the bulk of their rushing attack, led by Emiliano Mejia and Caspian Bailey, who have combined to rush for 1,222 yards and 22 touchdowns.
Boyd has done an excellent job of connecting with different receivers, including Merritt, Thomas, Ripp and Yuma Raux-Moriwaki. Krail said everyone who blocks on offense has to contend with Bellarmine’s two inside linebackers.
“Those two are really good and they play downhill, so we’ll have to figure out a way to get bodies on them and slow them down a little bit,” he said. “Their linebacking core is probably the strength of their defense.”
This is the second year in which the CCS has used an equity-based points system based on its own point system combined with the calpreps.com computer point rankings. Teams are ranked 1-40 and slotted accordingly from Division I to V. Division I, of course, represents the section’s upper-echelon.
“When you’re slotted in the D1 bracket, there’s no easy out,” Krail said. “Every single team is good and has had a great year. That’s kind of the beauty, we take the best eight teams and roll them up in one bracket and it’s a let’s go kind of thing. We’ve had a really nice year and our team deserves to play one of the best teams, and that’s what we’ll get.”
Sports editor Emanuel Lee can be reached at [email protected] and (831) 886-0471.
