PASADENA – Los Gatos had reached the California Interscholastic Federation 2-A title game by showing championship grit against a varied cast of opponents. The Wildcats had survived Riordan’s air raid, St. Ignatius and Wilcox’s power, and El Cerrito’s athleticism to earn the right to face Central Valley Christian.
Los Gatos had played close games throughout that run, and even authored a couple of memorable second-half comebacks.
But against the brutal Central Valley Christian running attack and its precise passing game, there would be no comeback in the South Bay school’s first state title game.
Los Gatos sure did try though.
Central Valley Christian defeated Los Gatos 45-42 in a thriller.
Los Gatos trailed 24-7 at halftime after committing two turnovers and turning it over on downs once. Though the Wildcats offense kept it competitive into the fourth quarter, that was just too much of a hole to dig out of, even for the seniors that carried the program to the title game.
Jaylen Thomas caught a 63-yard touchdown and Boxer Kopcsak-Yeung rushed for a 27-yard touchdown. Quarterback A.J Minyard even started the fourth quarter with a nifty 12-yard reverse-field touchdown run to cut the lead to 38-28 with 10 minutes left.
But it seemed like every time the Wildcats got close, CVC offense would go on a long drive that inevitably ended with a touchdown.
Even when Los Gatos got a rare stop and had a chance to get the ball back with seven minutes left and down 10 , the Wildcats fumbled the punt. Donelson made them pay with with his third rushing touchdown of the night, a 10-yard run with four minutes.
When Max Thomas a 24-yard touchdown with three minutes to go to cut the lead back to 10, the Wildcats didn’t get a lucky bounce on the onside kick. But when Los Gatos got the ball back a few minutes later, the Minyard led the team downfield and threw a 24-yard touchdown to Owen Panu to cut the lead to just three.
But with all of the momentum seemingly on Los Gatos’ side, CVC recovered the onside kick to end the game.
Aside from Jaylen Thomas rushing for a 36-yard touchdown on an inside reverse midway through the second quarter, nothing went right for the Wildcats in the first half either.
Bryson Donelson entered the game with over 3,700 yards from scrimmage and 53 total touchdowns, and showed why when he shrugged off tacklers to set up CVC’s efficient passing attack.
After starting the game with a field goal, the CVC defense forced a stop on fourth down on their own 11-yard line. Scott Garwood briefly slowed Central’s roll with an interception, but Los Gatos threw a pick on the very next play to negate it.
The Cavaliers finished the short four-play drive with a Donelson touchdown run. After Los Gatos coughed the ball up on a fumble at the 37-yard line, Donelson caught a 63-yard touchdown from quarterback Brent Kroeze.
The running back shrugged off the Wildcat defender on the sideline and sped into the endzone. Thomas answered with his touchdown run with five minutes remaining in the half, but the Los Gatos defense could not get a stop.
Kroeze threw back-breaking third-down completions to Gunnar Piepgrass and Ryan Lewis on the drive, his 34-yard looping dime to Lewis in the corner of the endzone one that gave the Visalia team a 24-7 lead going into halftime.
