BELLFLOWER With the Trinity League dual meet wrestling title on the line, St. John Bosco took aim at the defending champs and didn’t miss.
With two matches remaining, St. John Bosco’s Danny Salas clinched the title with his major-decision victory at 222 pounds, giving the Braves a 12-point lead that resulted in a 37-29 victory over visiting Servite on Thursday night.
The teams split the 14 matches with seven victories apiece. The difference came in how the Braves earned their wins. All of their victories came by fall or major decision, including Salas’ 11-3 victory.
“I don’t think we wrestled very well,” Servite coach Alan Clinton said. “We had to make some adjustments to our lineup and we didn’t wrestle with urgency tonight. We kept waiting for something big to happen. You don’t wait for something big to happen, you just wrestle and that’s what exactly what Bosco did.
“They (Bosco) worked hard for it and they wrestled well.”
Servite had two victories by fall, two by major decision and three by decision. The dual started at 106 pounds.
“These boys have worked real hard,” St. John Bosco coach Omar Delgado said. “Benjamin Angel’s pin in overtime (122) was huge.”
Last year, also with the title on the line, Servite pulled out a 35-29 victory over the Braves in a dual that came down to the final match.
The Braves had a 33-19 lead Thursday after a fall by Anthony Valencia (170) and major decision by Zahid Valencia (182).
Servite still had a shot to win with three matches remaining.
“I was nervous,” Delgado said.
Servite’s Parker Saltzman (197) won by fall to make things interesting, but Servite’s hopes ended when Salas won.
Delgado pointed to the efforts of Matt Williams (154) and Salas as being keys to the victory. In last year’s loss to Servite, they both lost their matches.
“I think they wanted to redeem themselves,” Delgado said. “They went out with a little extra. I was really proud for both of those boys for coming through and getting wins.”
The Friars haven’t dealt with any adversity this season, having won or finished near the top in every tournament. Clinton expects them to bounce back and still chase their set of goals this season.
“We have to go back to the workshop, get out the tools and start working again,” Clinton said. “You can’t blame one kid because you had a group of kids that didn’t do their job and didn’t wrestle with the intensity to get done what needed to get done.
“Tonight we had a setback and we haven’t had a setback this year. Tonight we did and it cost us the league title.”
The Friars took their only lead, 16-12, at 140 with Troy Madrigal’s victory by fall. The Brave retook the lead for good in the next match on Jacob Bueno’s technical fall.
Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister.com
