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By Rick Eymer
Palo Alto Sports Online

Matt Crist and the Palo Alto High defense wanted to make a statement in the SCVAL De Anza Division and getting after Los Gatos early and often was part of the plan.

Consider the statement made.

The Vikings offense followed along as Keller Chryst passed for 214 yards and three touchdowns to help Palo Alto achieve maximum efficiency in a 25-7 victory over the Wildcats on Friday night.

Combined with Milpitas' surprising 24-21 loss to Wilcox, Palo Alto's victory throws the De Anza Division race wide open, with three teams tied for the top.

Palo Alto (3-1, 5-2) has three games remaining, with Saratoga visiting next Friday night at 7:30 p.m.

"We came ready to play," Crist said. "We were really prepared for this game and knew we had to get after them. We want to make sure no one can beat us on our home turf."

Crist, Erik Anderson, Andrew Frick and Drew Rider made things miserable for Wildcats' quarterback Nick Bawden, who managed one completion in his fist five attempts and that went for negative yardage.

That's just the way things went for the Vikings all night and particularly in the early going. Los Gatos was limited to 42 yards of total offense in the first 24 minutes.

The Wildcats, who scored their only touchdown following a fumble recovery midway through the final quarter, got things moving a little better in the second half but by that time Palo Alto made its statement.

"That was our best defensive effort against a good team," Palo Alto coach Earl Hansen said. "We stepped it up on both sides of the ball."

In addition to Chryst, Matt Tolbert and Jayshawn Gates-Mouton each proved to be powerful weapons.

Tolbert's 70-yard run on Palo Alto's second play from scrimmage was a thing a beauty. He hit the hole created by center Spencer Drazovich and guard Nick Beeson and was never touched again as he completed his race to the end zone along the near sideline.

"Those guys played great," Tolbert said. "All I had to do was follow them and run. We may not be as big as they are but we came out here and out-physicaled them."

Tolbert finished with 119 yards on 13 carries.

Gates-Mouton, meanwhile, caught a pair of touchdown passes from Chryst of 62 and 39 yards, the first he caught in stride and the second in the corner of the end zone while he was being tightly guarded.

Malcolm Davis never had to break stride in his 48-yard touchdown reception from Chryst either.

Palo Alto produced 378 yards of total offense to Los Gatos' 220.

Crist and company sacked Bawden six times, hurried him a number of other times and Larry Allen blocked a pass at the line of scrimmage.

Although there's one home game remaining in the regular season, Palo Alto chose Friday night as Senior Day.

They certainly made their statements.

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