7 Forfeits Give Harvard a Win Without a Fight : Prep wrestling: Powerful Saracens rack up 20th consecutive home victory with 60-12 rout of St. Bernard.

It was difficult to consider Thursday’s Mission League wrestling match between host Harvard High and St. Bernard a mismatch, because it really was not much of a match.

Harvard, ranked 10th in Southern Section Division 1-A, clinched its 20th consecutive victory at home when St. Bernard, a first-year program, forfeited seven weight classes before anybody stepped on a mat.

After the six remaining matches, Harvard had rolled to a 60-12 win that improved the Saracens to 15-0, 2-0 in league matches.

But the score did not discourage the Vikings, who--despite trailing, 60-9, heading into the heavyweight match--cheered and encouraged teammate Mark Sanders during a 10-5 win, one of two decisions and a pin registered by St. Bernard (0-4, 0-2).

Consider it a moral victory for the Vikings, who were pinned 12 times during a 72-0 loss to Harvard in December. And the match seemed to entertain the crowd of 28, 29 counting the kid turning the cards on the hand-controlled scoreboard who--showing great foresight--kept one hand on Harvard’s total.

“These guys are just too much for us,” St. Bernard Coach Ray Niemann conceded.

So much, in fact, that Niemann put four of his varsity wrestlers in the JV match--two of the three losses were via pins, the other by a 6-0 decision. On the varsity mat, Harvard’s Cameron Reilly (135), James Lee (140) and Josh Minuto (189) registered pins. Reilly is 17-5, Lee 14-3 and Minuto 10-9.

Yet Niemann deemed the debacle a success for the Vikings, who have been decimated by injuries and whose roster is composed entirely of first-year wrestlers. Forty-eight point losses are part of the price a first-year program pays, Niemann said.

After all, this is the same guy who, when the Viking uniforms failed to arrive in time for the season, borrowed some that were used in the film “The World According to Garp.”

But it is difficult to pass judgment on St. Bernard after a match against Harvard, which has not lost at home since Jan. 10, 1987. Harvard, the two-time defending San Fernando Valley League champion, has won 14 consecutive league matches and is the Mission League favorite.

A change of league names does not seem to affect the Saracens, who have won six titles while competing in the Santa Fe, Pioneer, Ocean, and San Fernando leagues since their program’s inception in 1979.

“The success Harvard has had is mind-boggling,” Niemann said. “Look at Harvard and look at us. We look like a bunch of barrio kids.”

But Harvard co-Coach Lon Roberts believes St. Bernard eventually will build a winner under Niemann: “There are a couple of us who feel he is an outstanding coach, plus they have some tremendous athletes.”