MISSION VIEJO – Capistrano Valley wrestling coach Rich Bordner and Mission Viejo coach Robin Marquez hope their teams’ annual match will develop into the kind of natural rivalry that the schools have in other sports.
If Wednesday’s nonleague match is an indication, they are on the right track.
The host Cougars relied on a strong effort throughout their lineup and were able to defeat the Diablos, 49-26.
The winner of the match received a trophy.
“I think we wrestled well,” Bordner said. “Even our guys that lost battled and that’s all I asked them to do. Before the match, I said. ‘Win, lose or draw, you have to bring a fight. A crowd appreciates a good fight. They will stand up and appreciate you even if you lose.’
“We had a few backups in tonight, but I told the guys to just go out there and take it to them.”
The Cougars won the first four matches – two by forfeit, one by fall from Haris Sohail and Rick Wang’s major decision – to take a 22-0 lead.
The Diablos had their first victory at 132 pounds, a technical fall from David Orbe. The Diablos got six more points on a forfeit, and then Jonathan Orbe picked up an 8-6 victory at 145 pounds, cutting the Cougars’ lead to 22-14.
Capistrano Valley’s Joe Curry (152) and Ruben Macedo (160) followed with pins to extend the Cougars’ edge to 34-14.
The Diablos cut the deficit to 14 points in the upper weights, but couldn’t get any closer.
“I thought we wrestled with the same mentality that we have every time,” Capistrano Valley’s junior 182-pounder Gerardo Hernandez said. “We wrestled hard. We had some subs in, but as a team, we had to come together and figure out how to come back from those things.”
The highlight match came at heavyweight as third-ranked Randy Arriaga edged fifth-ranked Joseph Nava, 3-1, on a late and controversial takedown.
Despite the ending, Marquez said he liked the Diablos’ effort.
“I thought we battled very well,” Marquez said. “Our kids fought and that’s what I wanted most. We’re still out of shape. We have a lot of kids come from football and they’re not in (wrestling) shape, but I thought we fought well against a very good opponent.”
Contact the writer: dcalhoun@scng.com
