The Paly varsity football team ended their otherwise successful season with a, 6-27, loss against the Los Gatos Wildcats Dec. 2 at Foothill College.
Both teams seemed optimistic at the outset, even though Paly had suffered one of its only two regular season losses against Los Gatos several weeks before (the other was against Burlingame).
"We’ve come a long way," said Paly sophomore Michael Anderson. "Each week we get better and better."
The other side looked forward to victory as well, voicing similar sentiments.
"We’re pretty good," said Los Gatos senior Mike Gault. "We’ve been working pretty hard over the past week."
Each team was focused as they warmed up, concentrating on the pending game.
"The guys are positive," said Paly assistant coach Steve Foug. "We’ve got a new approach to beat this team. We’ve got a more experienced quarterback. We’re a more physical team."
From the first play it appeared that the Vikings would be in for a disappointment. Paly quarterback Jon Koepfgen was sacked on the first down, and Paly did not manage to get the ball past the 50-yard line before the ball was fumbled and ultimately recovered by Los Gatos.
The Viking defense didn’t fare much better as Wildcats’ quarterback Danny Sullivan made a series of passes up the field, finally passing to senior Bret Hampton who scored the first touchdown of the game with 7:50 left on the clock in the first quarter.
On their second possession, the Vikings had a string of ineffective runs and incomplete passes, and was getting nowhere when a long-range pass to wide-receiver #7 Maurice Williams was intercepted by Los Gatos cornerback Mike Gault. Gault then ran it back about 50 yards for Los Gatos’ second touchdown of the game with a 1:07 left in the first quarter. The kick was good for a score of 14-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Paly fared somewhat better during the second quarter, managing to get the ball to the Los Gatos 33 yard line before being penalized 10 yards on a personal foul. Paly kept the ball past the Los Gatos 50 for the rest of the quarter; however the Wildcats prevented the Viking offense from getting too close to the end zone. The score remained at 14-0 at the half.
The start of the third quarter was more promising for Paly as the Vikings managed to thwart the Los Gatos offensive attempts, resulting in a quick turnover to Paly. However Paly had an equally quick turnover, and Los Gatos retrieved possession of the ball. A huge run by Los Gatos fullback Nick Kalpin all the way up to the 36-yard line led to the Wildcat’s third touchdown of the game. The kick was good, and the score was 21-0 with 6:57 left in the third quarter.
With Paly in possession of the ball quarterback John Koepfgen and Cooper Miller had a hard time finding each other on the field, with two incomplete passes, but they made a breakthrough pass that brought Paly up to the 3-yard line. Paly scored its first touchdown of the game with 2:17 left on the clock, but failed in an attempted 2-point conversion, so the score stood at 21-6 in favor of the Wildcats.
By the 4th quarter both teams were exhausted and Los Gatos relied heavily on the fluid Sullivan-to-running-back-A.J. Comeau transaction to gain yardage. However the Wildacats turned over the ball after a series of short-range passes and an incomplete pass. But a fumble recovered by the Wildcats put the Vikings back again on defense.
Starting on the Paly 34-yard line, Los Gatos had little difficulty marching up to the end zone and scoring their third and final touchdown of the game.
The kick was way off to the right, leaving the score at 27-6 in favor of Los Gatos.
This game was Paly’s second CCS championship game in three years. A victory would have meant the Vikings’ first CCS title since 1995.
Unfortunately for Paly, Los Gatos had anticipated a fight, and had prepared themselves accordingly.
"We knew [The Vikings] were going to try something new since we beat them by so much last time." Comaeu said.
His teammate, quarterback Danny Sullivan, agreed.
"We knew we had to be more aggressive because we knew [Paly] wanted revenge," Sullivan said. "And we did just that."