From Staff Reports. Photos By Jose Pena
Millikan High School not only defeated Lakewood— the reigning four-time Moore League wrestling champions on Thursday night— the Rams won 10 of their 14 matches to soundly defeat the Lancers, 43-19.
The win is Millikan’s first home victory in 12 years over Lakewood and their first overall since 2005.
The Rams will still need to beat Poly and Wilson to claim the Moore League crown, but they have almost certainly ended the Lakewood streak.
James Kuwata got the Rams off to a 3-0 lead when he defeated Lakewood’s Nick Dalton in a 7-1 decision at 103 pounds.
Millikan’s Ben Bermudez (112) then beat Anthony Carmonal, 12-5, and that was followed by a James Potter 7-6 decision victory for Millikan at 119 pounds over Travis Cardwell.
The Rams took a 12-0 team lead when James Antony beat Ryan Bautista, 8-3, at 125 pounds and Millikan held a 12-0 lead.
Lakewood got its first victory of the night at 130 when Cody Gurule beat Orlando Jessie, 10-4.
The main event of the evening between Lakewood’s 135-pound Kimo Napohaku and Millikan’s Jake Wallace lived up to everything that’s been said all week.
Both wrestlers traded reversals and were tied 4-4 after the end of regulation, and with the Millikan home crowd chanting “Jake, Jake, Jake, Napohaku took Wallace down at the edge of the mat to win a 6-4 decision.
“Jake and I were evenly matched and he’s a strong guy, so I was glad to come out of that with a win,” Napohaku said. “We definitely didn’t wrestle as well as we needed to as a team to keep this streak alive, but we’ll regroup and have a lot to wrestle for.”
Napohaku improved to 21-1 and Wallace dropped to a very respectful 19-3, and perhaps a rematch at league finals could see these two classy and talented grapplers light up a gym like they did on Thursday evening.
Napohaku’s win brought Lakewood to within 12-6 and the Lancers evened the score when Nathan Batres (140) pinned Julian Gandarilla at 4:47 to earn six team points.
But Millikan 145-pound Jaime Reyes started a tidal wave of six Rams victories (four via pin fall) in the final seven matches as he pinned Brian Rivera (at 1:32), the younger brother of Lancers ML Individual and team champions, Carlos and Oscar Rivera.
Millikan’s heart and soul, Nick Pena, continued the momentum with a pin over Evan Richie just 1:29 into the match.
After a Nick Arroyo (160) 14-6 major decision over Andrew Becaria, the Rams led 28-12.
One of the lone bright spots for Lakewood was Keoni Waiolama’s pin over Oscar Jessie at 3:58 despite trailing much of the match.
Millikan senior Zack Woodruff officially ended the Lancers hopes when the 189-pounder pinned Tim Preuss at 1:51, but Woodruff didn’t know exactly what he had just done.
“I was walking off the mat and was happy and then I heard coach Marshall Thompson say ‘Zack, you did it,’ and I got emotional because this was the first time we’ve put ourselves in a situation to win the Moore League title,” Woodruff said. “It is a very good feeling to beat Lakewood and to do it as a senior is even more special.”
Sam Taylor (215) took a 6-0 decision over Alex Barillas for Millikan and heavyweight Calvin Gonzalez ended the Rams night with an exclamation mark by pinning Gabriel Megallon just 73 seconds into their match.
“They were tough tonight and they came to wrestle, so you’ve got to give Millikan credit,” Lakewood coach Andy Miramontes said.”They don’t have a weak spot from 1-14. I was really proud of Keoni (Waiolama) though for pinning their guy after being down in his match.”
For Pena, it’s taken four years to get this close to a ML title and his 21-2 record with 17 pins have him on pace to potentially break the Rams all-time pins record.
“It feels great, because all the training and hard work over the last four years has put us in a position to (potentially) win a league title and it wouldn’t be the same without having to go through Lakewood, because they have set the pace around here,” Pena said. “That match with Kimo and Jake was what this sport is all about. It was two great kids and great wrestlers battling to the end, and at the end, they both showed each other the respect they’ve both earned.”
Marshall Thompson eclipsed the 600-win mark early this season, but he was much more emotional on Thursday. Well, as emotional as Thompson can get.
The Rams legend got a hug for the Millikan athletic director and got pats and handshakes from parents and wrestlers throughout the gym.
“These kids all worked so hard to put us in this position and I am just really proud of them,” Thompson said. “You’ve got to give Lakewood a lot of credit for everything they’ve accomplished and that’s why it means so much to beat them, because there have been times we were favored and didn’t win. This is a great win, but we still need to wrestle well against Wilson and Poly.”
