La Cañada High wrestling rallies late, but falls to San Marino

SAN MARINO — Despite a late rally from the visiting La Cañada High wrestling team, it seems all but assured that a third straight Rio Hondo League championship will again rest at San Marino High.

That’s because the CIF Southern Section Western Division top-ranked Titans won eight of the first 10 bouts via pins in building a sizable lead against the Spartans and holding on for a 48-36 victory on Thursday afternoon.

The win keeps two-time reigning league champion San Marino (3-1 overall, 3-0 in league) alone in first place with two league matches still remaining.

The Titans are also in sole possession of the league’s lone guaranteed playoff berth to the Western Division Dual Meet Championship tournament at Long Beach Millikan High on Feb. 7.

Despite those facts, Spartans second-year Coach Justin Luthey was hardly upset.

“It was fun seeing how enthusiastic this team was throughout,” Luthey said. “We’re down big and we know we can’t win, but that didn’t stop the [junior varsity] guys from getting into it. Our entire team was into that match cheering until that last weight. I challenged the team to get involved and they did.”

If there’s good news for the Spartans (19-6, 2-1), who have finished runner-up in league the last two seasons, it’s that the team is still in excellent position to pick up one of eight divisional at-large berths, granted the Spartans win out in league.

La Cañada has two league matches remaining with South Pasadena on tap for Jan. 22.

As for Thursday, the Titans officially secured the victory at 170 pounds when Aaron Padilla delivered a pin at 4 minutes, 24 seconds into the 170-pound bout to put the home team ahead, 48-12.

With only four bouts remaining, the Spartans were mathematically eliminated.

Yet, La Cañada was far from dead.

San Marino forfeited the 182-pound match, which gave Spartan Daniel Badie the victory and pulled his teammates within 48-18.

The six-point swing helped fueled a Spartans’ closing 24-0 run, which included a fall from 195-pound senior Russell Marki, which brought the deficit to 48-24.

“San Marino is a very good team and has some good individual wrestlers as well,” Marki said. “I’m actually really happy how the match turned out. We fought really hard and some of our younger guys and maybe guys that people didn’t expect too much from really showed something.”

Perhaps senior heavyweight Lucas Drill was one of those wrestlers who surprised and impressed.

Only a week earlier, the 285-pounder was penalized twice for stalling versus Hoover.

Drill appeared on his way to defeat as he fell behind, 5-0, due to a takedown and near fall that almost resulted in a pin for San Marino’s Max Abughazalem.

Yet, Drill didn’t hesitate in landing a reversal and coming away with a pin in 1:05 that led to a roar from the visiting bench.

“I’ve been training hard for a week after the Hoover match to keep up the energy and keep off the stalling calls,” Drill said. “I worked against more experienced guys in [the Arroyo Tournament] on Saturday and that really helped me.”

Drill’s win coupled with a pin from 220-pounder David Vardanian helped cap the Spartans’ run and closed the score at 48-36.

“We have nothing but respect for La Cañada and knew we had to build up our lead through the lower and middle weights,” San Marino co-Coach Joe Gallardo said. “They’re a good program and you saw that today. We just had a great start.”

San Marino had crushed two previous league opponents in South Pasadena (70-0) and Monrovia (57-15), but appeared to have a fight on its hand when Spartans junior Jacob Barsom picked up a pin at 4:18 at 106 pounds to give La Cañada a 6-0 lead.

The Spartans’ advantage was short-lived, though, as San Marino’s Tino Lopez (113 pounds), Zander Silva (120), Isaiah Mora (126), Sebastian Velasquez (132) and Julian Flores (138) all secured falls to propel the Titans to a 30-6 advantage.

La Cañada temporarily halted the bleeding with a pin from 145-pounder Rodrigo Torres to bring the Spartans within 30-12 at the midway point.

Yet, there was no stopping the Titans, as Alexander Wick (152), Luke Troy (160) and Aaron Padilla picked up three straight falls to seal the win.