If coach Phil Luna was a betting man, he'd have probably put pretty good odds on Olivas getting that all-important pin. After all, Olivas is a senior veteran in the Willow Glen program who had already placed in three tournaments this season. And Mancilla? He's just a freshman.

As it turns out, the two Rams did come up with a clutch wins to help the Rams pull out a thrilling 38-36 upset victory over powerhouse Silver Creek. But the pin came from the freshman.

Mancilla took the mat at 130 pounds with his team down 36-29, facing a wrestler ranked No. 6 in the Central Coast Section.

"He put the kid in a cradle and almost pinned him in the first period," said Luna. "In the second, he was taken to his back almost got pinned. But in the third period he gets him a cradle again and pins him."

The fall cut the Silver Creek lead to 36-35 heading into the final match where Olivas went up against Michael Rico, ranked No. 4 in CCS.

"That was the match we wanted to see at the end of the day," said Luna.

Olivas dropped Rico for a first-round takedown, then, after a scoreless second period, Rico reversed Olivas in the third to tie the match 1-1 with a minute left to wrestle. But Olivas escaped in the final 10 seconds to pull out the 3-2 win and give the Rams a 38-36 victory over the Raiders.

"It was a great match," said Luna, adding that "we came out of nowhere to beat Silver Creek."

It was the first time in the history of the school that Willow Glen had notched a team win over Silver Creek, and it came despite the fact that the Rams forfeited at five weights.

"We only had eight guys out there to wrestle," added the coach. "It was pretty dang good."

The Rams, who gave up 30 team points on forfeits, lost just one of the eight matches, but they trailed 18-0 before a match was even contested.

Senior George Alvarez posted an 18-3 win at 160 pounds before senior Robert Oropeza won 11-7 at 189 to cut the lead to 18-8.

Oropeza, ranked No. 9 in CCS, went up against the No. 1-ranked 189-pounder in CCS in Elias Castillo.

"It was a big match," said Luna. "He took Rob down quick, but then Rob reversed him to his back. It went back and forth from there."

"That was a huge win for us," added the coach.

Sophomore Gerado Cisneros had the unenviable task of facing the state's No. 5-ranked 215 pounder. Cisneros turned his opponent on his back early in the match, but ended up getting pinned.

With Silver Creek up 36-8, the Rams started to chip away.

Freshman Anthony Mendez pinned at 103, frosh Freddy Betencourt pinned at 112, soph Nick Lancaster won 11-4 at 125 and junior Horacio Michel won by forfeit at 125 to trim the Creek lead to 36-29. That set the stage for the last-minute heroics by Mancilla and Olivas.

Willow Glen will be back on the mat this week to try to improve its record in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League when the Rams visit Oak Grove on Jan. 15, 7 p.m.

Olivas, Oropeza and Eugene Martinez are each off to pretty good starts for the Rams this winter. Olivas placed fourth in both the San Ramon and Lynn Dyche tournaments and he was fifth at the Coast Classic. Oropeza was fifth at the Dyche and sixth at the Coast Classic.

Martinez, sidelined with an injury for the Silver Creek match, won a title at 140 pounds at the Dyche tourney. He is now 14-2 for the year.

Girls soccer

Darin Sikk knew his Willow Glen Rams were going to have their hands full when they battled unbeaten Westmont in girls soccer action last Thursday in BVAL Santa Teresa Division play.

As it turns out, though, it was the Warriors who had their hands full as they had to score a second-half goal to pull out a 2-1 win over the Rams in a hard-fought league game.

Westmont improved to 5-0 in the division with the win and Willow Glen slipped to 2-2-1.

The Rams had opened the week with a tight 2-1 win over Overfelt, thanks to the defense of goalkeeper Rebekah Cremer and the offense of midfielder Chelsea Sikk.

"[Cremer] was the defensive player of the game," said the WG coach. "She stopped a ball in the last 40 seconds that should have tied the game, and she had many other saves. It was the game of her life--she was phenomenal."

It was a goal by Sikk in the 76th minute of play that snapped a 1-1 tie and gave the Rams the victory. Sikk's assist had set up forward Megan Finkle for a goal in the 10th minute that gave the Rams the early lead.

"She had a pretty solid game," said the coach of Sikk.

Overfelt battled back to tie the game in the 43rd minute, but the Rams scored the game winner 33 minutes later. A shot by midfielder Janelle Zetterquist bounced off the Overfelt 'keeper, but Sikk was there to drive home the rebound.

Along with Cremer and Sikk, the coach praised the efforts of midfielder Rachel Siehl.

Boys soccer

Junior Carlos Zarate knocked in a first-half goal off an assist from junior Alex Peña to life the Willow Glen boys soccer team to a 1-0 win over Independence last week. The Rams improved to 1-2-1 in the BVAL's Santa Teresa Division with the win.