There were no raw-raw speeches from the coaching staff Friday night, no fiery words to send the Los Gatos football players running through a proverbial wall and onto the field.
At the end of this most unusual season, at the end of an emotional year for his team, coach Mark Krail just wanted his players to have some fun.
That they did.
Los Gatos, playing on its home field, completed an unbeaten season with a 45-7 victory over Palo Alto. When it was over, there were tears of joy as a season nobody knew would happen and what to expect had reached the finish line.
“Our kids played with a lot of emotion tonight,” Krail said. “It’s not often as a football team that you know it’s your last game. When you go to the playoffs, you never know. Tonight we knew and that weighed heavy on some of the seniors, which was great. We kind of embraced it, and it was a lot of fun.”
Los Gatos threatened to knock out Palo Alto in the first quarter, just as it did to Mountain View two weeks ago. The Wildcats led 9-0 and were about to score again when a fumble near the goal line gave possession to Palo Alto. The Vikings drove for a touchdown to cut the deficit to two.
But this Los Gatos team is too good to allow one momentum shift to derail a perfect season. The Wildcats quickly answered with another touchdown and went on to complete a 5-0 spring and what will be remembered as a Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division championship.
“It’s always bittersweet when you have a good group like we have,” Krail said. “A lot of tears after the game of just joy. It was really good. It was a good night.”
Carson Dehorn’s 4-yard run across the goal line opened the scoring for Los Gatos. Lucas White then blocked a Palo Alto punt. When the ball rolled out of the end zone for safety, Los Gatos led 9-0.
Rowan Felsch’s 11-yard reception from Danny Peters made it 9-7.
But Los Gatos went ahead 23-7 at halftime on Jaden Mazzaferro’s 3-yard run and Kyle Pinkham’s 66-yard pass to Carson Dehorn.
Any thought of a Palo Alto comeback ended when Adam Garwood scored on a 14-yard run to widen Los Gatos’ lead to 30-7 in the third quarter. Garwood, a senior, tweaked his left ankle early in the game, but he talked his way back onto the field for a few snaps in the second half.
“The kid’s such a warrior,” Krail said. “He was begging to play. The team doc was saying, ‘Well, you’re not going to make it any worse.’ It was a pain thing. He broke the 100-yard mark tonight, so that was good. Our program is going to miss him. He’s just been such a great player for three years, the team leader.”
Just a few months ago, nobody knew if there would even be a season for seniors such as Garwood. The green light flashed on Feb. 12 and Los Gatos was ready for the opportunity.
The Wildcats were ready when they opened the season with a rout of Milpitas. They were ready to respond when they fell 19 points behind against Wilcox to win last week. They were ready Friday night.
“Pregame it wasn’t a lot of raw-raw stuff from me or the other coaches,” Krail said. “It was more like, ‘Guys, we love you. Go play with love in your heart and let’s just go out and have fun.’ That’s kind of been our approach the whole spring.”
Palo Alto finished 2-3.
