"This is for the league championship," said Downs of the Feb. 5, 7 p.m., bout at Fremont in Sunnyvale. "This is one of those big ones. They're going to be tough—they have really strong wrestlers at several weights."

Downs knows the recipe for success. He just hopes his Wildcats can mix in enough points to get past the Firebirds to clinch the dual match crown in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.

"We can't afford to give up any pins, and we have to get some pins," admitted the veteran Gatos mat coach. "Where they don't have real strong guys, we have to have pins."

Trouble is, Fremont has some strong guys.

Borislav and Filip Novachkov, both of them Bulgarian national champions, give the Firebirds a solid one-two punch in the lower weights. Jake Schonig at 103 and Dylan Gavin at 112 will challenge them in a couple of key match-ups.

Fremont boasts Central Coast Section-ranked wrestlers at 125 (Joel Tran), 130 (Joseph Seo), 135 (Kurtis Ogasawara), 140 (Greg Crane) and 215 (Ernesto Ancona). But Gatos counters with a few of their own tough guys.

Nolan Nguyen at 125 and Matt Miguel at 130 are both ranked in CCS, and Bashir Olangian at 135, Mike Ross at 140 and either Kevin Gallagher or Nolan Verga at 215 will provide tough competition for the Firebirds.

Downs will be looking for pins from Gatos' best—Bobby Pease at 152, Eric Chen at 171, Ivan Batinich at 189 and Devin Lopez at 275—and he's hoping for solid performances by Jordan France at 119, David Bitter at 145 and Mike Wysuph at 160.

Pease top champion

Pease is coming off of an exceptional showing at the California Invitational Tournament in Morro Bay. The senior sensation won the Champion of Champions award after winning the title at 154 pounds.

"Bobby won that, and it was a big deal," said Downs of Pease, who won four bouts by fall, then won 8-7 in the finals. "That was exciting. He's back wrestling where we'd hoped he'd be."

Pease won the 145-pound title at the tournament a year ago, helped Gatos to a team fifth—its best ever finish. He's been working all this year to get used to his new weight class at 154.

Los Gatos improved on its fifth-place showing of a year with a fourth in the 62-team field.

"That was huge," said Downs of the team finish. "These were teams mostly from the Southern and Central sections, which are the toughest in the state."

Lopez supported with a sixth at heavyweight and Chen at 173, Ross at 142 and Schonig at 103 each placed sixth. The placers—including Pease—combined for nine pins. Batinich added three, Bitter two and France, Nguyen and Miguel one each.

"We only took 13 kids to the tournament and 11 made the second day," said Downs. "We were also pinning a lot of guys (17 in all), and that's why we did so well."

Downs believes that his team's ability to pin will serve the Wildcats well at the CCS finals in a few weeks.

"Everybody's a great underdog to Gilroy at CCS," said Downs, "but our ability to wrestler back underneath (coming back through the consolation bracket) and to pin should keep us in the hunt."

Pease clinched his title at the California Invitational with an 8-7 win over an Atascadero wrestler—ranked seventh in the state—who had pinned Adam Morganthaler in the finals at 154 pounds in the same tourney last year. Pease gained a measure of his revenge for his teammate of a year ago with the victory.

Lopez pinned in his first three matches before losing three to settle for sixth at heavyweight.

"He was on fire," said Downs of Lopez, "and so was [Schonig]." The 103-pounder won four of seven matches.

Downs added that Ross "wrestled the best I've seen him wrestle all year. To take eighth in that weight class at that tournament is great." Ross also posted a 4-3 record.

Chen posted a 3-3 mark at 173. "That was the best he's been all year," said Downs. "He's really wrestling well."

Big day for Alonso

Los Gatos sent its second varsity to the Mid Cal Tournament the same day, and the Cats finished 27th in the 45-team field.

"That's probably the toughest tournament in our section," said Downs, "and for them to do that well is just great."

Carlos Alonso had a big day, beating the No. 4 seeded wrestler and staying the competition until he lost to the No. 1 seed.

"One of the kids he beat early in the tournament went on to finish sixth," said Downs.

Alonso, Jeff Wysuph, Collin Sanders, Kevin Cho, Dylan Rosen and Dane Diefendorff all made it to the second day of the tourney.

Prior to the tournaments, Los Gatos beat Wilcox 63-6 in a league dual match. But while the Wildcats made have rolled to the win, there was a pretty emotional story unfolding.

Verga's big night

Nolan Verga, a senior who will wrestle off this week with junior Kevin Gallagher for the right to compete against Fremont, won by fall at 215 pounds. It may have been one of his six pins for the Wildcats in the lopsided victory, but it was still pretty special—it was Verga's first varsity win in his first varsity match, despite spending four year in the wrestling program at the school.

Verga looked to have pretty good talent when he burst onto the scene as a freshman four years ago. But almost before his season even began, he suffered a broken arm in a frosh-soph tournament in Santa Cruz.

"It was the worst break I've ever seen," admitted Downs. Obviously, his season came to a screeching half after opening the year with 11 straight wins.

"They had to put a steel rod in his arm," added Downs. "So he couldn't wrestle his sophomore or junior years, but he still came out and helped us video matches."

Verga stayed with it and turned out for the team against this winter. Downs wasn't expecting him to regain the form he showed as a freshman, but the coach was pleasantly surprised. Grade problems kept him off the mat much of this year, but he was eligible when Los Gatos went up against Wilcox—and he was more than ready to wrestle.

"He went out and pinned that kid after not wrestling for almost three years," said Downs. "It was pretty emotional."

Verga came back to win one of three matches at the Mid Cals.

"It's quite a story," added Downs.

Nguyen, Bitter, Pease, Batinich and Lopez also pinned against Wilcox and Schonig, Gavin, Miguel, Olangian, Ross and Chen each won by decision. France was a forfeit winner.

The Los Gatos junior varsity squad all but wrapped up its sixth straight league championship with a 66-16 win over Wilcox a couple of weeks ago. Pins by Naveed Bogheri, Sanders, Alonso, Charlie Denues, Alan Howard and Gallagher sparked the young Cats to the team win.

"It's been a pretty dominant group for a long time," said Downs of the Gatos JVs. "It's really helped us on the varsity level."