Calvary Chapel Doesn’t Let Weakness Show in Victory

For the last three years, Temecula Valley has been circling Calvary Chapel like a vulture, waiting for a moment of weakness.

The last three times these teams met in wrestling, Calvary Chapel has won. But with Calvary Chapel in a rebuilding year, it looked as though Thursday at Calvary Chapel would be the Golden Bears’ chance to win.

What might be a rebuilding year for some teams, however, was business as usual for Calvary Chapel as the defending state champions put down any Golden Bear challenge with a 34-26 victory.

True, Calvary Chapel is rebuilding. Over the last five years, the Eagles usually had seven or more wrestlers occupying the top-ranked positions in the county polls. This year only one wrestler ranked first in the county.

Strong in the lower weights, Calvary Chapel Coach John Azevedo said his wrestlers would have to dominate the first six weight classes if they wanted to win the meet. And they did just that as sophomore John Jackson started with an 8-6 sudden-death victory over Tyler Moron at 103 pounds.

Steve Esparza followed by beating Temecula Valley’s Tim Risen, 12-4, at 112 pounds. Frank Gill, a Temecula Valley sophomore, scored a pin when he pulled a reversal on Joe Issa and put him on his back to win the 119-pound match in 1 minute 15 seconds.

Adam Bones, who is ranked first in the county at 125 pounds, won his match against Jeff Briston, 11-2, and Josh Johnson capped off the six-weight run with a technical fall over Angelo Lego at 130 pounds.

Temecula Valley started to build momentum at the mid-weights as Buck Merideth and brother Patrick, won their 140 and 145 matches. But Conan Williams got Calvary Chapel back on track when he defeated Nick Berboso, 4-3 at 152 pounds.

In other nonleague matches:

Fullerton 51, Western 27--Carlos Luna pinned Brian Greenleaf in 54 seconds at 125 pounds, and Oscar Hernandez pinned John Whitman in 1:30 at 145 pounds for Fullerton (3-0).

Santa Ana 64, Century 5--Santa Ana’s Steve Avalos moved up a weight class and defeated Ramiro Carasa, a state qualifier last season, 16-0, in a 160-pound match.

In the South Coast League:

Dana Hills 34, Mission Viejo 30--Blake Dossey pinned Gared Stock at 215 pounds to give Dana Hills a lead it would hold despite losing the heavyweight match, 9-2.

San Clemente 37, Trabuco Hills 25--Elias Valencia earned a pin in 4:24 and John Ezell won by decision, 7-3, to lead San Clemente (16-2, 1-0), which rallied after Trabuco Hills (7-3, 0-1) won the first three matches.