LOS GATOS – Los Gatos lost quite a bit on offense from last year’s Central Coast Section and NorCal championship team. But most of the defense is back for an encore.
In Friday’s home opener, the Los Gatos defense shut down Liberty’s outstanding running back Jaxon Bell and forced the Lions to the air.
The Wildcats got their offense going, jumped out to an early lead and kept the pressure on in a 38-21 non-league victory.
Bell, who rushed for 1,537 yards and 25 touchdowns last season as a sophomore and was coming off a 187-yard game in Liberty’s season-opening 24-7 win over a team from Bakersfield, managed only 17 yards on 10 carries.
“We preached all week about not letting him be the one to beat us,” Los Gatos coach Mark Krail said. “We preached that one guy was not going to bring him down. He’s so strong from the waist down. We did a good job of corralling him and keeping him within the confines of our front seven, front eight.”
Los Gatos jumped out to a 17-0 lead and Liberty was forced to try to play catch up, abandoning the run which managed just 41 yards for the game..QB Sage Robertson threw 45 passes, completing 28 for 320 yards. Bell caught nine passes for 101 yards. Chris Joe had five catches for 121 yards and two touchdowns.
“Hats off to them for being able to take away our strength and force us to play from behind all night,” Liberty coach Mike Cable said. “They put pressure on us. What we can learn from it is that if we want to be considered one of the best teams, then we have to play like the best teams. Los Gatos gave us that example, tested us tonight, and we know we have to improve in a lot of areas in order to meet that standard.”
Los Gatos, coming off a 14-7 win over Soquel, rushed for 151 yards and passed for 179. Scotty Brennan and Callum Schweitzer split time at quarterback, Brennan playing the first and third quarters, Schweitzer the second and fourth. Brennan completed 9 of 14 passes for 60 yards. Schweitzer was 7 of 9 for 119 yards and one touchdown, a 37-yarder to Max Thomas, who caught seven balls for 99 yards.
“I thought they both had moments, did some really nice things,” Krail said. “We’re pretty lucky because either one of them could lead our team to be successful. It’s a constant evaluation. I’m guessing right now we’ll probably continue playing both of them, see where it goes. They’re both wonderful kids, good athletes. They know they’re in a competition, which is great.”
Brennan, a left-handed senior, is the son of Arizona head coach Brent Brennan. Schweitzer, a right-handed junior, is the third Schweitzer brother to play at Los Gatos. His brother Will went on to Notre Dame before retiring from football.
“It’s great,” Brennan said. “People always try to make it Scotty versus Callum. But really me and Callum work well together. I’ll get my drives, I’ll come to the sideline and tell him what’s up. We help each other out, give each other little tips as the game goes on. He’s a really talented player so it’s really fun to have someone like that to talk with. It makes both of us better.”.
Los Gatos scored four touchdowns on the ground, two by Grayson Doslak (11 carries, 95 yards) and two by Braden Smith (nine carries, 31 yards).
“Been doing this a long time, we’re a run-first, play-action pass team,” Krail said. “It’s old school. You try to stop the run. We did a pretty good job with (Bell). And then you run the ball.”
