HUNTINGTON BEACH – The much-anticipated third consecutive meeting between the St. John Bosco and Servite wrestling teams in the finals of the CIF-SS Coastal Division Dual Meet Championships didn’t come to fruition Saturday.
Thanks to Trabuco Hills.
The Mustangs, who were defeated by the Friars, 56-15, in last year’s semifinals, turned the tide, jumping out to a big lead and holding on for a 43-29 victory over Servite in the semifinals Saturday at Marina High.
Trabuco Hills also had a 56-12 victory over Mater Dei.
“That victory meant a lot for us,” Trabuco Hills senior Matt Roxas said. “It showed that this is strongest team we’ve ever brought out.
“We talked about it (last year’s meeting) very briefly. We didn’t actually try to strategize for a particular person. We focused on own weaknesses and we displayed what we had.”
The Mustangs had a 25-5 lead after Collin Nicholson’s victory by fall at 145 pounds. Servite managed to cut the score to 31-20 on Ryan Tash’s 11-10 victory at 182.
Luke Murray followed at 195 with a first-period fall to give the Mustangs a 37-20 lead.
“We had some guys step up and win with big bonus points,” Trabuco Hills coach Kurt Mitthof said. “Those are good kids and getting pins like that really swings the momentum. We wrestled great. We knew we could compete with them and that’s all you want.
In the final, the Mustangs sat some of their regulars and were eventually defeated by St. John Bosco, 78-6.
“We wrestled the way we know we could wrestle against Servite. If we send out that team (against St. John Bosco), maybe it (the score) is different, but we have to protect our guys for (CIF-SS) Individuals (Feb. 17-18) because we have a good shot at winning our individuals.
This was the first time since 2013 that the Friars weren’t involved in the final of the dual meet championships.
“They wrestled better than us,” Servite coach Alan Clinton said of Trabuco Hills. “Full credit to them … I’m tired of this youth thing. They have to learn how to win. You have to realize that you have to win every time. They’re going to have to decide what they want to do. They can roll up the tent and call it a day or they can come back, get after it and find a way to get it done.
“If you want to be the best, you have to be the best all the time.”
In the final, the Braves won nine of the 10 matches that were wrestled by fall. There were four forfeits. In all, they won 13 of the 14 matches.
“I feel like I wanted to have the dual against Servite because they’re such a worthy opponent and they’re always going to bring their best and they’re always going to want compete against us,” St. John Bosco coach Omar Delgado said. “It almost felt like a letdown. It is a little disappointing they didn’t wrestle their best guys. I think we would have still beat them, just by a different score.”
The Braves, the top seed in the division, had lost to Servite in the previous two dual meet finals. The Braves had a first-round bye Saturday and then recorded a 73-6 victory over Sonora and 57-19 over Santa Ana in the semifinals.
In the first round, Sonora defeated Yorba Linda, 57-24. El Modena, Santa Ana, Mater Dei and Marina also had first-round victories.
In the Southern Division:
Top-seeded Irvine was eliminated by Valencia of Valencia in the semifinals.
The Vaqueros opened the tournament with a first-round victory over Hamilton of Anza, 60-15, and then beat Peninsula, 44-15.
Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach defeated Valencia in the final.
Contact the writer: dcalhoun@scng.com
