LOS GATOS — After losing in heart-breaking fashion in the opening round of the Central Coast Section playoffs in each of the last two years, the Los Gatos football team was able to reverse its fortunes and experience the euphoric rush of postseason victory Friday with a 28-14 win over Archbishop Riordan.
“We just broke the curse,” running back Boxer Kopcsak-Yeung said.
The losses the Wildcats incurred, one at the end of regulation on an interception return and the other in overtime, were to Bellarmine and Mitty from the West Catholic Athletic League. This time they came out on top against another WCAL opponent.
“It feels great, we had two excruciating losses the last two years,” Los Gatos coach Mark Krail said.”It’s not just public-private, which seems to be the theme these days. It’s great our guys get to feel this way because they work so hard.”
No. 4 seed Los Gatos (9-2) advances to play at No. 3 St. Ignatius in the CCS Open/Division I semifinals next weekend.
“Nowhere I’d rather be,” Kopcsak-Yeung said.
After a 14-14 first half, the Los Gatos defense was able to hold the high-powered Riordan offense scoreless in the second half.”
“I think we just kept their offense in front of us,” said linebacker Henry Masters, who had a key fumble recovery and also scored the first touchdown of the game on an 11-yard run while subbing for Kopcsak-Yeung at running back. “Our defense is so fast and everyone hustles to the ball. I didn’t think they could drive the ball on us if we kept them in front of us.”
Masters was in at running back after Kopcsak-Yeung had to be helped off the field with an ankle injury.
“I sprained it,” he said. “But Saturdays are for feeling pain and Fridays are for gutting it out. They taped it up and I’m all good.”’.
He came back and did his usual yeoman work, carrying 26 times for 168 yards.
Los Gatos took the second-half kickoff and went on a time-consuming drive. But on the 11th play the drive ended on an interception by Tyrone Jackson.
But on Riordan’s second play the Wildcats got the ball back on a fumble recovery by Nate Goldsbury. On third down AJ Minyard hit Jaylen Thomas with a 33-yard touchdown pass down the right sideline to put Los Gatos ahead to stay.
The Los Gatos defense then forced a punt and the offense needed only five plays to go 55 yards for another touchdown and a two-score lead. Kopcsak-Yeung ripped off a 25-yard run and caught a 22-yard pass from Minyard for a first down at the 9, setting up Scott Garwood’s run for a touchdown on an inside reverse. Minyard handed off to Kopcsak-Yeung, who handed it to Garwood, who ran it in for the score.
“That is not a gadget play for us,” Krail said. “We work on it from the first day of spring. It’s one of our staples.”
The teams traded touchdowns in the first half, two apiece. Down 7-0, sophomore quarterback Mike Mitchell Jr. took the Crusaders 80 yards in six plays, five of them through the air, with Jackson on the receiving end of a 29-yard touchdown pass.
Los Gatos struck back quickly. Minyard connected with Owen Panu for 46 yards on the first play and then handed it off to Kopcsak-Yeung on four successive plays, the fourth of which resulted in a 3-yard touchdown.
Again Riordan responded with Mitchell hitting Chris Lawson with a 16-yard TD pass.
Mitchell finished 29 of 43 for 314 yards. Lawson had 12 catches for 133 yards, Jackson five receptions for 59 yards, Cynai Thomas 4 for 57 and Judge Nash 4 for 42.
Los Gatos was balanced on offense, rushing for 212 yards along with Minyard completing 11 of 19 passes for 232 yards. Thomas, the team’s big-play threat, caught four balls for 120 yards. Panu had five receptions for 86 yards.
In addition to losing the ball twice on fumbles and once on an interception, Riordan was also penalized 11 times for 95 yards.
“We didn’t play clean football tonight,” Riordan coach Adhir Ravipati said. “And they’ve got a really good team. They executed really well and they won’t beat themselves.’
After going 3-7 in Ravipati’s first year as head coach, Riordan saw its season come to an end with a record of 7-4.
“I’m disappointed for the kids,” Ravipati said. “We have a really young team that had its ups and downs. The hard thing is building a culture, building consistency in execution. We have to do a better job as coaches, a better job in the offseason getting where we need to go. There’s a lot to be excited about for next year, but I’m just sad for our seniors. They’re a really special class to me, a great group of kids. They’ve done a lot to change Riordan football.”
