Sophomore running back Joey Wood scored the second of his two touchdowns on the first play of overtime and Los Gatos stopped a decisive two-point conversion attempt to defeat visiting Wilcox, 21-20, in a thrilling CCS Division II semifinal Friday night. With the victory, the Wildcats (8-4) advance to the championship game and will face top-seeded St. Francis, a 41-7 winner over Aragon in the other Division II semifinal.
Following Wood's touchdown in overtime, Wilcox was faced with a 4th-and-goal from the 2-yard line down 21-14. Junior Delshawn Mitchell responded with his third touchdown of the game on a 2-yard run and Chargers coach Dan Brown decided to go for the 2-point conversion and the win.
Wilcox quarterback Kenny Dipko, who ran the triple option so expertly all night, kept the ball this time and plunged through the middle, coming up just inches short of the goal line, and the Wildcats escaped with the victory.
The Chargers looked to be in excellent shape to close out a 14-7 victory in regulation time, but a costly fumble with 2:41 left turned the ball over to Los Gatos on the Wilcox 19-yard line.
Facing a third-and-10 from the 19, Wildcat quarterback Nick Bawden hit wide receiver Kyle Kevorkian on a slant and the senior made a spectacular catch, wedging the ball through his legs to take the ball down to the 3. Wood scored two plays later on a one-yard dive and Logan Chapman's extra point made it 14-14 with 1:42 left.
Wilcox threatened to win it in regulation after a long run by Mitchell - on a play he nearly broke for the distance - put the Chargers in long field-goal range. However, a 47-yard attempt by kicker Robert Bowles came up just short, forcing the overtime period.
The Chargers, one of the most run-dominant teams in CCS, took a 14-7 lead into the fourth quarter on the strength of a couple of touchdown passes from Dipko to Mitchell on identical plays down the left seam. Mitchell exploded for a 78-yard touchdown with 5:10 left in the third quarter and then dove in for the two-point conversion to put Wilcox ahead 14-7.
In the first quarter, Wilcox scored on its initial drive when Dipko found Mitchell in the seam for a 34-yard score on his first pass attempt of the game to put the Chargers up, 6-0. The Wilcox defense did an outstanding job shutting down the vaunted Los Gatos rushing attack, but the Wildcats finally broke through midway through the second half when Bawden found Chapman in the right corner for a 17-yard completion on 3rd-and-goal from the 18.
On the next play, Bawden sneaked in for the score to make it 7-6, Los Gatos, with 6:00 left in the first half.
Los Gatos will attempt to repeat as CCS Division II champs when it takes on WCAL power St. Francis next weekend in Mountain View. Wilcox ends its season at 8-4.
