El Camino Real Wrestlers Win 8th Title in Row

The lights dimmed in the San Fernando High gym, except for a single spotlight that hung just above the wrestling mat before Thursday night’s match between El Camino Real and San Fernando highs.

The match would determine the champion of the five-team Valley League, so the San Fernando cheerleaders lined the perimeter of the mat and a large and vocal crowd was on hand.

But the atmosphere had changed from one resembling a festival to a rather funereal one when the lights came back on an hour later. That was all the time it took for defending City Section champion El Camino Real to emerge with a resounding 56-18 victory.

With the win, El Camino Real (25-1 overall, 4-0 in league meets) wrapped up its eighth consecutive league title and its ninth in 10 years. San Fernando (2-10, 2-2) fell into third behind Canoga Park.

El Camino Real won 10 of the 13 matches, seven by pin and one on a technical pin.

“It was one of the best matches we had all season,” El Camino Real Coach Milt Goffman said. “We’ve always had a couple sore spots somewhere this season, but tonight everybody wrestled well.”

Greg McMurray (119 pounds), Chris Kuhlen (126), Rich Jin (138), Roy Steinbock (145), Matt Rohan (175), Oren Auneri (195) and Cenaro Ramirez (heavyweight) all recorded pins for El Camino Real.

Greg Tan (154) of San Fernando pinned Andy Hasson 3 minutes 20 seconds into his match to finish with a 4-0 league record.

The match started badly for San Fernando when it forfeited the first match, in the 98-pound division. But the Tigers quickly took a 12-6 advantage on pins by Ozzy Ramirez (105) and Manuel Anaya (112). San Fernando never led again as El Camino Real won nine of the next 10 matches.