Ponderosa pins down Oak Ridge

EL DORADO HILLS — Oak Ridge and Ponderosa renewed their wrestling rivalry Wednesday evening in a Delta River League and intra-county dual meet at the Trojans’ gym.

The Trojans and Bruins battled throughout the dual meet, but at the end, Ponderosa was able to emerge with a difficult 31-24 victory over the Trojans.

“Those guys were tough tonight, and that is how rivalry matches usually are,” Ponderosa head coach Tyson Escobar said. “It is always good to be able to get a win and that was what we were able to accomplish tonight. Now we need to get ready for next week against Folsom and a chance for the league title.”

Oak Ridge head coach Casey Ryan said, “We wrestled tough and it was a difficult dual meet. However I am proud of the effort by our team. We are still improving and working hard as we are getting ready for the postseason. Tonight we were ready for Ponderosa. However they have some depth and we are getting there as a program. Our team is solid and we are looking forward toward the rest of the season.”

The action began at 160 pounds with Ali Atebar of Oak Ridge and Trae Providence for Ponderosa. The match was close the entire contest with Atebar able to protect two takedowns in the first period for a 5-2 victory.

At 170s Josh Ferry of Ponderosa returned the favor by using a double leg takedown and a reversal in the second to earn a 4-1 win over Bishane Sagal and even the contest at 3-all. That changed quickly as Keaton Subjeck at 182s earned one of only four falls on the night between the two teams, as Subjeck recorded a second period pin over Nat Israel.

With Oak Ridge leading 9-3, Nick Troquato at 195s for the Bruins used five takedowns over the course of the match to achieve a 14-7 victory over Zach Claiborne. That followed by Henry Sharoyan at 220s and Jeff Camilli at heavyweight for Ponderosa earning hard-fought victories over Sherman Mcvay and Jacob Prowl of the Trojans, respectively.

By earning the three straight victories, the Bruins grabbed a 12-9 advantage that was erased by Oak Ridge. Josh Ploke earned a win for the Trojans at 106s with an 8-2 decision over T.J Holloway. That was followed with Christian Portilla defeating Pre Deitchman 11-2 at 113 pounds to give Oak Ridge a 16-12 lead that was receded to 15-12 due to miscommunication between the mat official and coach Ryan.

After the one team point deduction, Ponderosa was given a big lift from Jacob Garcia at 120s, as Garcia used an arm bar to pin Zach Mcgillis of Oak Ridge to give the Bruins an 18-16 lead. That was followed by important victories for Ponderosa by Jacob Gonzalez at 126s with a 3-0 win over Xavier Liongson and a third round pin by Jimmy Scarr over Ryan Redhair of the Trojans at 132 pounds to give the Bruins 27-16 advantage.

“I knew that our team needed a pin and I wrestled hard and I was able to get the cradle,” Scarr said. “We knew Oak Ridge was going to be difficult tonight. We were able to win, however we need to go back to work in the (wrestling) room and improve.”

At the 138s, Brandon Claiborne of Oak Ridge turned around and pinned Colin Hustrulid of the Bruins to narrow the gap in the team score to 27-22. That created an important match at the 145s between Christian Canepa of Ponderosa and Ryan Johnson of Oak Ridge with two matches remaining.

For most of the match Canepa held a 2-0 lead from a first period takedown. That changed in the third as Canepa was able to score two near falls on the way to an 11-0 win.

“This was a tough dual tonight and was what we expected. A couple of matches were the difference in the dual and we are glad that we were able to win,” said Canepa after the match.

With the Bruins having secured the dual with the win by Canepa, the night concluded with Kevin Cryon of Oak Ridge defeating T.J. Shamblin of the Bruins in a 12-7 decision.