Los Gatos and Fremont, second and third behind Gilroy in the CCS team rankings, had been grappling last week to be second to none in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.

Wildcats and Firebirds had been exchanging takedowns and reversals, escapes and near falls on the Fremont mat, striving to maneuver themselves into better seeding positions for the upcoming SCVAL meet at Los Altos.

Now, in the wake of Los Gatos' 46-25 capture of the De Anza Division dual match crown, both head coaches sounded as if they were gearing up for Valentine's Day, not league finals.

A lot of love was flowing from the lips of Los Gatos' Scott Downs and Fremont's Paul Escalera, admirers of each other's teams.

"Whenever we wrestle Los Gatos, we know it will be a knock-down, drag-out fight," Escalera said. "Whenever a Fremont guy and a Los Gatos guy meet, you know it will be a nails match."

"They are respectful, well-coached and well-conditioned," Downs praised the Firebirds. "They don't have a full line-up, but they are very good—ranked 25th in the state."

The Firebirds had been good enough to easily win four previous league duals, despite having nobody to fill the 152-, 160- and 171-pound positions. Against Los Gatos, the 18 points lost in forfeited bouts were too much to overcome.

Twelve points went on the scoreboard right away, after a blind draw determined the contest would begin with the 160 class. Mike Wysuph picked up the forfeit win for the Wildcats, and Eric Chen did likewise at 171.

The first wrestled bout featured Gatos senior Ivan Batinich, the top-ranked 191-pounder in CCS. Escalera had hoped outstanding sophomore Tommy Staats could score an upset, but Batinich prevailed with a 12-4 major decision and four team points for the Cats.

It was the first of "four swing matches that needed to go our way" in order for Fremont to have a good chance to win the bout, Escalera said. "Instead, three went their way."

The one that did go Fremont's way was no surprise, but came after a surprise line-up maneuver by Escalera. He moved senior leader Ernesto Ancona, a 215-pounder ranked third in CCS and eighth in the state, up to heavyweight to battle Los Gatos junior Devin Lopez. The strategy worked as Ancona pinned in 52 seconds.

Fremont junior Austin Hill led Nolan Verga 7-6 after two rounds of the 215 matchup, but the Wildcat senior pinned Hill 1:20 into the third period.

Ancona's pin put Fremont on the scoreboard and trimmed its deficit to 22-6. But in the final "swing match" at 103, Fremont freshman Borislav Novachkov was unable to defeat Gatos' Jake Schonig. The junior, ranked seventh in the section, scored a 7-1 decision win.

After Firebird sophomore Filip Novachkov (112) and Wildcat junior Jordan France (119) nailed pins, Los Gatos led 31-12. Then the teams split the final six matches.

For Fremont, senior Joel Tran (125) took a 3-0 decision over senior Nolan Nguyen, sophomore Kurtis Ogasawara (135) won a major decision and Greg Crane (140) won by fall with two seconds left in the first round.

For Los Gatos, junior David Bitter pinned at 145 and senior Bobby Pease won by forfeit at 160, after senior 130-pounder Matt Miguel blanked second-ranked Joe Seo 4-0 in what Downs called "the upset of the night."

Both teams conclude the De Anza Division schedule this week before moving on to league finals. Fremont (4-1) hosts Palo Alto before heading to Los Altos on Feb. 14 for the league tournament.