Covina Northview Wrestles to Title

This time, the real Covina Northview wrestling team stood up.

After coming under fire for sending a junior varsity squad to the Southern Section dual meet championships last week, Northview showed its true colors Saturday night with a resounding 23-point victory against Santa Ana in the Eastern Division individual championships at Norte Vista High in Riverside.

Northview, which held out its varsity last week in order to prepare for the individual championships, set a school individual championship record with 219 points and got weight-class victories from Sammy Saunders at 112 pounds, James Clay at 160 and David De La Fuente at 171.

It is the second individual championship for Northview, which won in 2000.

The Vikings, who also had three wrestlers finish second in what was considered the toughest of the six divisional championships, had a meet-best nine wrestlers finish in the top five, thus advancing to the Masters meet.

Clay, who had three pins, a technical fall and a major decision, said the criticism aimed at Northview last week inspired his team all week.

“That brought motivation to our practice,” Clay said. “Winning this is great.”

Santa Ana, which got victories from Jair Ramirez at 140 pounds and Fernando Jaimes at 152, had eight wrestlers qualify for the Masters.

Santa Maria Righetti led the tournament with four weight-class winners: Jaime Rocha at 103, Andrew Domingues at 119, Jesse Rocha at 125 and Mario Arguilles at 130. The Warriors finished third with 117.5 points and will send five to the Masters.

Things may have gone differently for Santa Ana if not for a penalty called against Hugo Guzman in the 103-pound final. Guzman and Rocha went to double overtime and Rocha won when Guzman was assessed a penalty for locking his hands.

“That was big,” Santa Ana Coach Scott Glabb said. “That would have made this a little closer.”

Peter Yoon

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In girls’ water polo:

Long Beach Wilson 8, Lake Forest El Toro 7--The Bruins held fourth-seeded El Toro scoreless the final 13 minutes while overcoming a four-goal deficit in a Division I quarterfinal game at El Toro High.

Wilson (18-9) took an 8-7 lead on a goal by freshman Lauren Silver with 3:41 remaining and its defense clamped down the rest of the way, stopping a man-advantage situation with 1:59 remaining.

The Chargers (20-9), No. 4 in The Times’ rankings, didn’t get the ball back until the final seconds as El Toro goalkeeper Erin Greenberg deflected Adriane Mota’s shot over the goal with 1:16 remaining and the Bruins then drew an ejection with 44 seconds left, resetting the 35-second shot clock.

Silver scored four goals to lead eighth-ranked Wilson, which will play top-seeded Santa Margarita in the semifinals Wednesday at a site to be determined.

Dan Arritt

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San Bernardino 9, Redlands 8--Alison Riddle scored her second goal with four seconds remaining to give San Bernardino (23-6) the victory at Riverside Arlington High. Goalkeeper Alison Lane’s 13th save and outlet pass to Riddle set up the winning shot.

In girls’ soccer:

Newport Harbor 3, Irvine University 1 (OT)--Alec Mills’ goal early in the second half gave visiting University a 1-0 lead, but Amy Ross scored in the 53rd minute for the tie, then had goals in each of the 10-minute overtime periods for the sixth-ranked Sailors in a Division II playoff game.