Los Gatos 173-pounder Richard Escobar works for a 14-8 victory to help his team to an important win over Fremont.

Photograph by Paul Myers

Wildcats pin clutch win over Fremont

Morgenthaler gets Gatos going with 12-10 victory

By Dick Sparrer

The Valentine's Day match between Los Gatos and Cupertino has been shaping up all season long as the wrestling showdown in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.

But for the Feb. 14 match to truly be meaningful, the Wildcats had some work to do first--namely, beat Fremont.

So last Wednesday night the Cats went out and did just that. What's more, they did it in impressive fashion with a 46-11 triumph that virtually knocked the Firebirds out of the picture in the De Anza Division dual match race.

Gatos improved to 3-0 in the division with the team win, and the Cats rolled to the victory by allowing Fremont just three individual wins in the 14 weight classes.

"The kids really took the challenge," said Gatos co-head coach Scott Downs.

And it was quite a challenge, considering the fact that the Wildcats lost a tight dual match decision to the Firebirds back in December at Hollister Duals.

"They beat us by three points, I think," said Downs. "We were missing our football guys, but they still beat us at some key weights."

One of those weights was 127 pounds, where Adam Morgenthaler lost a tight decision to Fremont's Joseph Seo. And thanks to the luck of the draw, that rematch would be the first bout of the night last Wednesday.

The results, though, we're much different this time around. Morgenthaler outlasted Seo 12-10 to get the Wildcats off to a solid start.

"That was a huge win to start the thing," said Downs of Morgenthaler's victory. "They both wrestled great, but [Morgenthaler] just went after it."

Fremont chose to forfeit to Brian Miguel at 132 pounds and move Alvin Cacdac up to 137's to go against Ted Ross. But the strategy backfired for the Firebirds when Ross rolled over Cacdac for a 12-4 victory.

"Ted is on a real climb," said Downs. "And he just controlled this match. It was a strong match for him."

Bobby Pease followed with a big 7-2 win over Bayardo Sanchez at 142 pounds to get the Cats on a roll. He fell behind 2-0 on a takedown, then answered with seven points for the victory.

"That was a big win, too," said Downs.

Fremont won at 147 and 154 pounds, but Jeff Oleson stopped the Firebirds cold with an impressive 2-0 victory at 162 pounds.

Then the powerful upper weights took over for Los Gatos.

Richard Escobar won 14-8 at 173 pounds and Chris Smith pinned in just eight seconds at 191 pounds. Evan McDonald won by forfeit at 217.

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