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By Keith Peters
Palo Alto Online Sports

Palo Alto has an invitation. So does Menlo-Atherton, Sacred Heart Prep and Menlo School. All are headed to the big dance known as the Central Coast Section football playoffs.

Gunn can join that party on Friday night with a victory over host Fremont to close the SCVAL El Camino Division regular season. The division champ gets an automatic berth into the playoffs. If the Titans lose, they won't have enough points to qualify for an at-large berth and their season will be over.

Gunn (5-0, 7-2) has won five straight games, its longest streak since starting out 6-0 in 2002. A win over Fremont (4-1, 7-2) will give the Titans their first undefeated season in the El Camino Division and eight victories heading to CCS.

Gunn has won at least eight games only twice since the program started in 1965 in 2002 (8-4) and 1971 (10-0) -- and is looking to become only the second squad to win eight games in the regular season. The 2002 team won its eighth in a CCS opener.

Thus, a lot will be riding on Friday's showdown in Sunnyvale that kicks off at 7:30 p.m. The winner will head to the CCS Division I playoffs, unless Leland beats Oak Grove on Friday night. Should that happen, Oak Grove would drop to Division I and the Gunn-Fremont winner to Division II.

Gunn is coming off a 28-27 win over host Monta Vista, which gave the Titans sole possession of first place. Junior running back Sean Lydster led the Titans by rushing for 239 yards on 32 carries and scoring on runs of 13, 27, six and 14 yards.

His final score came with 9:28 left and broke a 21-21 tie. Gunn later stopped a two-point conversion with 1:19 left to play to secure the win. After each TD, Ben Sampson kicked the extra point in what proved to be the decisive difference.

Lydster now has 1,150 rushing yards this season, a average of 8.58 yards per carry, and 15 TDs.

While Gunn needs a victory to get into the CCS playoffs, Palo Alto will need one on Friday at Santa Clara (7:30 p.m.) to secure an Open Division berth. An upset loss by the Vikings (5-1, 7-2) would drop them into a four-way tie for first with Milpitas, Wilcox and Los Gatos and give Milpitas the Open Division berth based on tiebreakers.

That scenario, however, probably isn't on Paly's radar. The Vikings control their path to the postseason, thanks to a 56-28 win over Mountain View last Friday and Saratoga's 44-37 upset of erstwhile division leader Milpitas.

Paly senior running back Matt Tolbert went over 1,000 rushing yards for the season while junior quarterback Keller Chryst moved closer to 2,000 passing yards and now has 23 TD passes.

With their regular seasons over, Menlo School (4-1, 8-1) and Sacred Heart Prep (4-1, 8-1) will match records in the 10th annual Valparaiso Bowl on Friday night (7 p.m.) at Woodside High. Both teams are headed for the CCS Division IV playoffs, unless PAL Division leader Terra Nova (3-1, 5-4) is upset by last-place Half Moon Bay (0-4, 1-8) on Friday night. In that case, SHP will head to the Open Division.

If the Gators remain in Division IV, they'll likely be a No. 1 or 2 seed with a win over Menlo. Should the Knights win, they could be the No. 2 seed and get a first-round home game.

Thus, plenty is riding on the nonleague tussle other than just neighborhood bragging rights.
Menlo is coming off a 56-14 win over Jefferson while SHP toppled Half Moon Bay last week, 40-8.

Menlo-Atherton, meanwhile, gained zero momentum heading into the postseason following a 38-14 loss to visiting Terra Nova. The Bears (3-2, 5-4) also saw their Bay Division title hopes disappear in the setback. The Bears conclude their regular season on Friday by hosting Woodside in their annual nonleague showdown at 7 p.m.

— Tom Jacoubowsky of gunntitans.com contributed

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