The Willow Glen Resident Photograph by Skye Dunlap To The Mat: Sophomore Henry Chavez, shown in action in a match last season, pinned at 135 pounds to help Willow Glen to a thrilling 34-33 win over Leigh. Rams win first mat title since '69 By Dick Sparrer Erik Lupercio couldn't just win. When the Willow Glen heavyweight took the mat for the final match of the night against Leigh, he had to pin if the Rams had any hopes of winning the dual match championship in the West Valley Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League. "Erik was fired up and ready to wrestle," said Willow Glen coach Phil Luna of the big junior. He certainly was. Lupercio put his Leigh opponent down in the second round to lift the Rams to a 34-33 victory over the Longhorns. The win helped Willow Glen secure the division championship, the school's first league wrestling crown since 1969. And the Rams won it in thrilling fashion. "What a great match," said Luna of the one-point victory his Rams recorded before a very vocal home crowd of 250. "It was real emotional. It can't get much better than this," he added. Every match was a big one throughout the 14 weight classes, but some were bigger than others. Willow Glen lost by fall at 103 pounds, but Daniel Lopez came through with a 7-0 victory at 112, and Lupe Duran pinned with 34 seconds left in the second round at 119. Another Leigh pin at 125 left the Rams down 12-9, but Miguel Gutierrez came through with an impressive 8-7 win at 130 to tie the bout at 12-12. "He injured his shoulder [at the Live Oak tournament], and he reinjured it again in this match," said Luna of Gutierrez. "But he decided to stick with it, and came through with a big win." Sophomore Henry Chavez followed with an impressive victory at 135 pounds. "He was up 4-1, then all of a sudden he gets the guy on his back for a big pin," said Luna. Chavez pinned with less than a minute left in the match to put the Rams on top 18-12. Wil Rideau lost 8-2 at 140 pounds, but that was a big match, too, for the Rams. "We couldn't afford a pin there," said Luna. "So that ended up being a big match for us." A pin at 145 put Leigh back on top, but senior Jeff Ramirez tied things back up with a tight 5-3 victory at 152 pounds. "We were hoping for a win there," said Luna, "and he came through with a big win. That set up the last four matches, and we needed to win three of the last four." Willow Glen expected a Leigh fall at 160, and the Longhorns pinned to move in front 27-21. Then things really got exciting in the final four bouts. Steven Kline had split two decisions with his Leigh opponent in tournaments earlier in the year, and the 171-pounder was training 3-2 with just 14 seconds left to wrestle. "We were yelling at him to just get away," said Luna, hoping Kline could escape and come away with a draw. "But he pulls a reversal, then rides the guy the last 10 seconds." The 4-3 win cut Leigh's lead to 27-24. Jessie Hendricks stormed out to a 10-2 lead at 189 pounds, only to see the Leigh wrestler battled back to cut the lead to 10-7. But Hendricks reeled off seven unaswered points in the final 1:35 to claim a 17-7 major decision win and put the Rams up 28-27 with just two matches left to wrestle. Willow Glen expected that Leigh's Kevin Krall would win at 215, and the state contender pinned WG junior Fernando Betancourt to put the Longhorns on top 33-28 heading into the final match. That meant the Rams needed a superior decision just to tie, and a pin to win. That was the task facing Lupercio at heavyweight, and the big junior was up to the task. "He was up 13-3 in the second period, and he throws him on his back to go up 18-3," said Luna of Lupercio. "Erik was taking him the whole time, but after he threw the kid on his back, he got out." But Lupercio put his Leigh opponent down again in the second round, and pinned with 20 seconds left in the round to give Willow Glen the team win. "People were going nuts," said Luna, and for good reason. It was Willow Glen's first wrestling championship in 30 years, and Leigh had been going for its first league crown in 20 years. [ Back to Contents Page | Willow Glen Resident Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Willow Glen Resident, February 3, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.