In an aberration of their successful season, the Paly football squad succumbed to the Los Gatos Wildcats 28-63 in their final regular season game.

Despite the lopsided score, the season was deemed a success because of the youth and inexperience relative to last year’s team.

"This season has gone really well," said Paly junior quarterback Nick Goodspeed, who is currently nursing a separated shoulder he suffered two weeks ago. "Our last game was really impressive because our defense really stepped it up and won it for us. We’re just hoping now for a good seeding for the CCS [playoffs]."

It seemed like Paly would carry its successful regular season’s momentum into the playoffs as junior running back Will Frazier ran it from three yards out with 7:24 remaining in the first quarter.

But the Wildcats came right back with a 12-yard touchdown pass to senior running back A.J. Comeau.

After the first quarter, the Wildcats’ offense broke open the game with two touchdown passes and two running touchdowns while Paly could only counter with a 28-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Cooper Miller. This made the score 35-14 at the half.

"We had a five-minute defensive lapse where we let them score three touchdowns on us," Paly senior tight end and defensive end Nick Rosas said. "We can’t let that happen again."

The Wildcats continued their dominance as Comeau ran it in from seven yards out, and senior quarterback Danny Sullivan tacked on another seven points with a 39-yard touchdown pass to tight end Bret Hampton.

It seemed like the Vikings would recover when Frazier caught a 90-yard bomb for a touchdown, and junior Kevin Dexter recovered a kickoff fumble, which led to another Miller 20-yard touchdown pass.

But the Wildcats stormed back with two more touchdowns, a two-yard catch by Hampton and a five-yard run from sophomore running back Nick Kalpin.

"We really need to work on our endurance for next week," said Rosas. "They just outlasted us."

Next week, the Vikings hope to get Goodspeed back again after his two game absence.

"He’s on a week-by-week status," Paly athletic trainer Stacey Kofman said. "We’re just crossing our fingers and hoping for the best."

The third-seeded Paly football team will host a first round CCS playoff game against sixth seed South San Francisco on Friday, November 18 at 7 p.m.