Poway Must Play the Heavy to Win Title : High schools: Titans lead going into second day, but rival Clovis has four in the semifinals.

Poway’s hopes of pinning down its second state title rests on the strength of its upper weight wrestlers at today’s California State Championships at the Spanos Center on the University of Pacific.

Poway leads the team scoring as it enters today’s semifinals with 67 points. Clovis, the two-time defending state champion and five-time winner, has 61. In the battle for third place are San Jose Ponderosa with 30 1/2 and Valhalla, with 27.

Poway took a state record 12 of a possible 13 wrestlers to the state meet, and three wrestlers still have a chance to claim individual titles: Ross Funches (160 pounds), John Haas (171) and heavyweight Corey Farkas.

But there are some obstacles that stand in the way of Poway’s first title since 1986.

Farkas squares off in today’s semifinal against American’s Darin Preisendorf, who scored a controversial 2-1 decision over Farkas in the championship match last year. Farkas is ranked No. 1 in the state, Preisendorf No. 2.

Where numbers once favored Poway, bringing 12 wrestlers to Clovis’ 10, the numbers now favor Clovis, which has four wrestlers in the semifinals to Poway’s three. Wrestlers who were beaten earlier in the tournament can only place as high as third place.

Poway may have saved itself in the quarterfinals when Funches pinned Clovis’ Brian Haupt in 5:10.

Haas advanced to the semifinals with a 7-0 victory over Rubidoux’s Jason Baird, and Farkas advanced with a 12-0 decision of San Ramon’s Ken Miller.

Three other local wrestlers reached the quarterfinals and two advanced. Mt. Carmel’s Gail Miller (125) defeated Novato’s Dan Buhrman, 7-6, and Point Loma heavyweight La’ Roi Glover beat Bakersfield South’s Paul Carrillo, 5-4.

Monte Vista’s Angelo Espinelli (103) was beaten 6-0 by Bakersfield West’s Aaron Radman.

Among the Clovis wrestlers remaining are Nick Zinkin (119), who finished fourth last year, Bruce Munster (145), Elliott Hine (171) and Kory Westbury (189).

One glaring Orange County absentee in today’s semifinals will be Matt Padgett of Canyon at 160. Blame it on an upset at the North Coast Section championships last week.

When Keith Richards of Mission San Jose, the state’s top-ranked 160-pounder, lost to Casey Strand of College Park last Saturday, it threw the state meet draw sheet out of whack. And it forced Padgett and Richards, a three-time state champion from Oklahoma, into an earlier-than-expected second-round matchup.

Richards came away a decisive, 13-6, winner, pushing Padgett, unbeaten in 48 matches this season until then, into the consolation bracket.

Padgett, the Five Counties, 4-A and Masters Meet champion, is still alive for third place, but it’s going to take a little work wrestling back through the consolation rounds today.

The county’s four semifinalists are assured a spot in the top seven.