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Mat Action: Willow Glen's Adrian Morales, working over his opponent for a win in a dual match against Santa Teresa, nailed second place at 173 pounds at the BVAL wrestling finals held last Saturday at James Lick.
Photograph by Paul Myers
Lopez, Jaramillo pin BVAL mat titles
Rams fourth in league tourney, third in dual match standings
By Dick Sparrer
There were 14 championship matches contested at the Blossom Valley Athletic League wrestling finals last Saturday at James Lick High School in East San Jose. And for three of the 14, Willow Glen coach Phil Luna had one of the best seats in the house.
Luna sat in a folding chair at the corner of the mat for three championship bouts that featured his Rams. And two of the Willow Glen wrestlers came through with league titles.
Senior Mike Jaramillo and junior Steve Lopez each nailed individual titles and junior Adrian Morales picked up a second to lead Willow Glen to a solid fourth-place finish in the rugged 22-team tourney.
Oak Grove ran up 178.5 points to win the team title at the league meet. Silver Creek was second (167.5) with Overfelt (148) third, Willow Glen (141) fourth and Pioneer (94.5) fifth.
Jaramillo tossed around his Lick opponent for a 14-1 major decision win in the finals to claim the title at 142 pounds, and Lopez came through with an 8-3 victory over a wrestler from Lick to take the 147-pound crown.
Morales battled Westmont's Garreth Gorman tough before losing a tough 10-8 nod in the last match at 173 pounds.
Junior Amir Faraj-Perry pulled out a tight 4-2 win over an Independence foe to clinch third place at 217 pounds.
Sophomore Reuben Rodriguez clinched fourth place at 127 pounds and Richard Salaz, another junior, pinned in the first round in his final match to nail fifth at 162 pounds.
Sam Olivas, a sophomore, won his last match 6-3 to get seventh place at 114 pounds and junior Daniel Cousino clinched seventh at 154 with a 15-5 victory.
The Rams had wrapped up a 4-2 finish in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the BVAL with a 52-28 win over Santa Teresa earlier in the week. Willow Glen finished third overall in the division behind Oak Grove and Silver Creek.
The Rams won six of the eight matches contested against the Saints, pinning in five of them.
Lopez had the quickest pin of the day, putting his foe to his back in just 51 seconds at 147 pounds. Sophomore Ricardo Hernandez pinned at 1:37 of the first at 137 pounds.
Olivas won by fall at 114 pounds, David Estrella pinned at 121 and Rodriguez nailed a pin at 127.
Morales rolled his opponent around for a 17-3 win at 191, and Jason Grossman (162), Salaz (173) and Faraj-Perry (217) each picked up forfeit wins.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
