Los Gatos High’s Jaylen Thomas deflects a pass intended for Soquel’s Jordan McCord during a nonleague football game on Thursday night. (Brandon Vallance – Santa Cruz Sentinel)
LOS GATOS — Soquel High football coach Dwight Lowery wanted his Knights to face quality opponents in nonleague to better prepare them for their first season in the Pacific Coast Athletic’s powerful Gabilan Division, so he booked to a two-year contract with Los Gatos, a 15-time Central Coast Section champion.
The Wildcats, ranked No. 5 in the CCS this season by MaxPreps.com, had their way.
The No. 20 Knights got some quality film Friday to address areas that need improvement. Los Gatos quarterback A.J. Minyard, a Santa Cruz resident, made sure of that.
Minyard pieced together a perfect two-minute drill just before halftime, and the Wildcats pulled away for a 45-14 rout in front of nearly 2,000 fans in the teams’ 2023 opener. The 6-foot-3 senior, making his second varsity start, passed for 237 yards and five touchdowns. Scott Garland had three scoring receptions, and Jaylen Thomas had two.
“It’s not going to get easier,” said Lowery, a Soquel alum and former NFL defensive back. “We can take that and move forward, and makes sure that we put ourselves in a situation where we not only learn from it, we correct little things. Because I think there was a lot of little things that we didn’t do well tonight.”
Sophomore quarterback Sam Whelan made his varsity debut and finished 10 of 19 for 94 yards, with one touchdown pass and one interception.
“I think it was great,” Lowery said of Whelan’s debut. “Obviously, he made some good throws, some good reads. There’s certain things he’s confident with and, at the same time, he’s a young guy, so he needs to have more of an understanding of taking what the defense gives you, and not try and force situations he may not see, or may not be there.”
Los Gatos jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, The Wildcats scored on their first offensive series, marching 52 yards on six plays. Minyard connected with Garland from 10 yards out for the touchdown.
“We had decent protection throwing the ball,” Wildcats coach Mark Krail said. “We were able to move the pocket, a little bit. We’ve got a pretty good room of receivers, as they say.”
Soquel lost a fumble on its third series, and the Wildcats returned it to the Knights’ 4-yard-line. But the Knights’ defense stepped up and forced Los Gatos to settle for a field goal, which kicker Sam Pearman booted from 26 yards.
Los Gatos played three quarterbacks. Scotty Brennan, a 6-4 junior left-hander whose father, Brent, is the head football coach at San Jose State University, led several series, with mixed results.
Sophomore linebacker Adrian Lopez-Kais got Soquel on the scoreboard in the second quarter when he intercepted a pass from Brennan and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown. Esteban Gonzalez made the extra-point kick to make it a 10-7 game.
Los Gatos didn’t shy away from passing, especially with Soquel proving tough to run on.
Minyard returned and led the Wildcats on a 10-play, 80-yard scoring drive capped by Thomas’ 21-yard reception. Thomas also made a stellar tip to himself in traffic for a 31-yard gain on a third-and-13 play.
“This is, honestly, one of the best football games I’ve been a part of,” said Minyard, whose cousin, Chase Mowry, plays for Soquel. “It was important. It’s just going to keep us going throughout the season. We still have stuff we need to work on, and we’re going to try and keep cruising.”
Whelan pieced together his best series on the next drive. He led the Knights on an eight-play, 81-yard scoring drive, highlighted by a 19-yard gain to tight end Justice Grauel-Tebong, and an 18-yard touchdown pass to Braylon Noble on a play over the middle with 1:55 left in the half.
That was more than enough time for Minyard to work his magic. He led Los Gatos 80 yards on eight plays, thanks to some help from the Knights, who dropped a potential interception.
“There was no panic, there was no ‘what are we doing?’ ” Krail said. “We repped this every couple of days in practice, and so they responded really well.”
Garwood hauled in a 10-yard scoring pass with 19.5 second left in the half, which put the Wildcats back up by three points, 17-14.
The second half was all Wildcats. Minyard threw a touchdown in both quarters, and linebacker Henry Masters stepped in front of a pass intended for Noble and returned it 22 yards for a touchdown in the third.
Grauel-Tebong and Tanner Trowbridge recorded sacks for the Knights and helped hold the Wildcats to 85 yards rushing on 26 attempts.
Both coaches were hoping to see better showings from their ground attack.
Soquel was held to 26 yards on 23 carries. Factoring into that total were the three sacks of Whelan, which went for minus-34 yards. Daniel Rodriguez had 10 carries for 31 yards and Cruz Ferris had eight carries for 22 yards.
“Our offensive line did great, pass blocking,” Noble said. “We just need to find a way to run the ball. The whole team needs to participate in that.”
Boxer Kopcsak-Yeung ran for 66 yards on 16 carries as the Wildcats’ featured back.
THE SCORES, SCHEDULE
Thursday
Los Gatos 45, Soquel 14
Friday
Oakdale 21, at Aptos 14
At South San Francisco 40, SLV 18
At Monterey 35, St. Francis 0
At Ripon Christian 68, Pajaro Valley 0
At Harbor 40, Santa Cruz 0 (game called at halftime)
Saturday
MVC 20, at Los Altos 13 (OT)
At Scotts Valley 35, Gonzales 0
At Carmel 49, Watsonville 20
