BHS Wrestling: Aztecs survive close call

BARSTOW • The Desert Sky League wrestling finals just got a little more interesting.

Adding to the fact that for the first year the Mojave River League will wrestle its finals simultaneously with the DSL, a trip to the postseason will be on the line for one of three DSL teams.

Barstow won 7-5 in the seventh criteria of a match that ended in a 39-39 tie against Granite Hills on Thursday at the Don Bilsborough Gymnasium to set up the three-way, second place tie in the DSL.

The win leaves Barstow, Granite Hills and Victor Valley tied with identical 2-2 league records. The tiebreaker will be settled at DSL Finals which start at 10 a.m. Saturday at Victor Valley College. On the line for the second place team is a trip to CIF-Southern Section Division IV Dual Meet Championship on Feb. 14 at Cajon High School. Silverado swept the DSL to take its third straight league title.

For Barstow coach Adam Hopkins, the DSL finals are now a team meet rather than an individual meet, a change he enjoys.

“It’s still a team,” Hopkins said. “The individual tournament has changed this year.

“It means a lot (to get to team duals). It’s another weekend to wrestle. It isn’t definite that we are going, but the door is cracked.”
Granite Hills entered Thursday’s match with four wrestlers down due to injuries. Granite Hills coach Mike Witham said he expects two of those wrestlers to return for finals.

“We’ve had a rough week with injuries,” Witham said. “We are not at full strength. That is to take nothing away from Barstow. They deserved it and earned it.”

Neither team grabbed more than a six-point lead throughout the match as the teams traded pins early on. Jonathan McPheron scored Barstow a 39-33 lead in the 215 pound matchup when he pinned Morgan Ary with 12.4 seconds left in the first period.

With the match on the line, Barstow’s Mark Jones and Granite Hill’s Omar Ross squared off in the heavyweight match. Both wrestlers came close to near pins in the opening seconds of the match.  The match was briefly stopped with 43 seconds left in the first period and both wrestlers took the opportunity to call for crowd noise, which they got plenty of. Ross took the advantage out of the pause and pinned Jones, who was wrestling in just his second match ever, with 15.7 seconds left in the first period.

“Mark’s a first-year wrestler,” Hopkins said. “I don’t put a lot of pressure on a guy like that. I don’t expect him to do anything but wrestle hard, and that’s what he did.”

With the score tied 39-39, the referee had to break out the rule book just to determine the winner. It took until the seventh criteria until Barstow was awarded the win because the Aztecs scored more first points in the matches.

“Those team duals that go to a criteria are barnburners,” Hopkins said.

103 — Bosco (B) pinned Capps (G), 1:17.
112 — Nava (G) pinned Alva (B), 1:41.
119 — Silva (B) pinned Leos (G), 1:11.
125 —  DeLa Paz (G) pinned Negrette (B), 1:41.
130 — Greenlee (B) pinned Soto (G), 3:00.
135 — Penaloza (G) pinned Mitchell (B), 1:13.
140 — Jackson (G) pinned  N/A, 1:44.
145 — Benavidez (B) pinned Cox (G), 5:34.
152 — Salas (B) pinned A. Penaloza (G), 1:01.
160 — Telles (B) dec. Fulcher (G), 12-6.
171 — Asuega (G) pinned Abdulla (B), 1:26.
189 — Hobbs (G) dec. Gonzales (B), 6-4.
215 — McPheron (B) pinned Ary (G), 1:48.
HWT — Ross (G) pinned Jones (B), 1:45.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4124 or
mpeters@desertdispatch.com