Saratoga News

Sports

Saratoga's Nguyen claims second at CCS

By Mike Barnhart

Since placing sixth at the state high school wrestling meet last winter, Los Gatos senior Geoff Doss has been on a mission to become a state champion.

This weekend, Feb. 29-March 1 at Bakersfield's Rabobank Arena, he will get another shot.

Doss earned a trip to the CIF State Wrestling Championships by impressively beating five challengers at the Central Coast Section championships, Feb. 22-23, at Independence and Overfelt. With four pins and a 16-5 major decision over San Benito senior Fernando Lucatero in the final, Doss captured the gold medal for the 154-pound weight class.

"I'm chasing a state title, so this was just one step in the process," explained Doss, who never looked back after taking down Lucatero with an ankle pick that earned a quick 5-0 lead. "This was just taking care of business."

Some would say it was business as usual for the determined Doss, who continues to build upon his school takedown record each time he takes the mat.

"He's relentless and very self-motivated," said Los Gatos coach Ken Perrotti, after Doss improved his season record to 43-2 and became the first Wildcat since Bobby Pease (2003-04) to win at CCS two years in a row.

It certainly was business as usual for Gilroy, which claimed the team championship for the sixth straight season. In all, 76 schools were represented in the two-day meet. The top four finishers in each of the 14 weight classes qualified for state.

Los Gatos teammate Calvin Hawkes, who for two seasons has been doing everything in his power to "be like Geoff" on the wrestling mat, now has his shot too.

After a second-period escape and takedown, Hawkes held on to beat San Lorenzo Valley sophomore Cody Rodebaugh 3-2 for the 137-pound title and a chance to be a state medalist.

Although Los Gatos fell short of its team goal to replace Gilroy as team champion--the Mustangs, with four individual winners, won their unprecedented sixth consecutive team title--Doss and Hawkes gave the Wildcats two CCS champions in the same year for the first time since 1970.

No other local athletes captured gold at CCS, but Saratoga junior Nathan Nguyen (105 pounds) and Westmont senior Abe Matsui (132) reached the championship round, before losing to No. 1 seeds.

In the first match of the finals program, Nguyen lost 4-0 to Overfelt's talented Joshua Go.

"This was his third loss to Go, and the other were pins," Saratoga coach Kirk Abe said, "so this was his best match against him."

Nguyen, who was third at CCS last year, barely escaped the semifinals. Down 10-4 in the third period, he rallied for an 11-10 win over Michael Lim of El Camino.

"He used a high-risk move he calls the 'cement mixer' to turn things around," Abe explained.

Matsui, the Blossom Valley Athletic League champion and the No. 6 seed, led his title match against Watsonville senior Emmanuel Lanuza 5-3 and had his eyes on an upset when he started the third round in the bottom position. But Matsui was penalized twice in the final period for stalling, forcing a 5-5 tie and overtime. Lanuza scored a takedown to win 7-5.

Matsui, who finished in the top eight at CCS as a junior, will be joined at the state meet by Westmont teammate Chris Sutton, who placed fourth at 137 pounds with a 5-2 record.

Matsui reached the final by beating Fremont senior La Quintin Cathey 15-7 in one of the 132 semifinals. Cathey bounced back to win two matches to earn third.

Los Gatos senior Victor Gonzalez pinned Saratoga junior Jasper Loren in the second round of the fifth-place match at 147 pounds. Both competitors entered the second day 3-0, but lost in the semifinals to the top seeds. Then in the wrestle-back for third and fourth place, Gonzalez lost 4-2 to Gilroy's Travis Sakamoto, and Loren lost 2-1 to Harbor senior Eric Lopez. Interestingly, in Friday's quarterfinals, Gonzalez had knocked off Lopez and Loren had decisioned Sakamoto.

"Victor worked his butt off in this tournament," Perrotti said. "He was doing things on the mat that we work on. He did not make his goal as a state qualifier, but we are proud of him."

"Jasper had a real good tourney," Abe said. "He had a great match against Sakamoto in the quarters and then scored one of the few takedowns against his opponent in the semis."

Loren lost his semi-final bout 7-4 to St. Francis sophomore Dominic Kastl, the eventual champion.

In Friday's heavyweight quarterfinals, Monta Vista junior Graham Paterson was disqualified following his third pin of the day. After Paterson pinned Brian Newell of Sequoia, Newell protested to the referee that Paterson had bit his ring finger. After a short inspection, the referee awarded the match to Newell, despite protests by the Monta Vista coaches.

Paterson, who would have advanced to the semifinals, was disqualified for the remainder of the tournament. He said it was an accident.

"It was the last match of the day and I was just looking to get it done and go home to prepare for the semis," Paterson said the next day. "I was breathing hard, so my mouth was open. When I was taking him down, he tried to push my head away and his finger slid into my mouth. When we hit the mat, the impact caused my jaws to close, making bite-marks.

"I was in control and pinning him. Why would I ever intentionally bite him?"

Paterson's season ended with seven straight pins, one in a dual meet, three en route to the SCVAL championship and three last Friday.

A top eight finisher in the 132 class was Saratoga junior Richard Macklin (4-2). Prospect junior Shohei Takagi finished 2-2.

No local 119 competitors reached the second day, but Prospect senior Janik Santana almost did. He suffered a tough 5-4 defeat in his first bout against No. 5 Tyler Naman, then won three straight and made it to the final 12 before bowing out.

Also at 119, Vincent Huang of Lynbrook went 1-2.

At 127, Prospect senior Michael Bricker (1-2) lost in the first round, before scoring a win in the consolation bracket.

Bellarmine senior David Jensen and Prospect junior David Silver both went 2-2 at 142.

Junior 162-pounder Brian Butrice of Westmont went 2-2.

Saratoga sophomore Alan Yen was 2-2 and reached the final 12 at 191. Junior teammate Raymond Boales scored a couple of pins at 217 and finished 2-2.