Bulldogs make moves in dual loss to league rival Leland
MORGAN HILL
Bryan Gomes wasn’t exactly going in blind Wednesday when he tried a new pinning combination against Leland’s Darren Hsu.
It was an arm-bar stack — the same one that Gomes wound up on the business end of in his two losses this wrestling season — and the Sobrato 125-pounder surprised himself with how well he worked it, turning Hsu onto his head and shoulders for an elegant first-round pin.
“I’ve learned it recently and thought it’d be a good move to use,” Gomes said. “It went pretty well … pretty much the way I liked it.”
As a junior, Gomes is one of few old dogs on coach Moses Guillardo’s roster. While Gomes perfected a new trick during Wednesday’s Santa Teresa Division dual at Sobrato High School, most of his teammates stayed in their comfort zone, focusing on the few moves they knew.
Guillardo was more concerned with that than the final score, a 38-26 loss which undercut Sobrato’s chance to win a first division team title. By expanding their repertoire, Guillardo said, the current Bulldogs will help the program build up to championships down the road.
“I want to emphasize and push on trying to win, but I’ve got a green team,” Guillardo said. “We have a lot of freshmen and first-year juniors; I don’t want to expect the world. These kids are pretty new.
“We’re taking things step by step. I’m slowly kind of changing their way of sticking to one move, so every week I try to show them something new.”
This week, it was arm bars and tilts. Chris Tran used both to defeat Leland’s Laura Rocha by technical fall in the opening 112-pound match, and Thomas Burback did the same at 130 pounds where he nearly overcame a 12-2 deficit against Alan Legassick of the Chargers. Burback pulled within 12-10 in the closing seconds but could not turn a final tilt.
“I had to score as many points as I could fast,” Burback said. “He just had the counter for that last tilt, and I ran out of time.”
Guillardo was pleased with the rally but expects more from his sophomore in the future.
“He fought his way through and didn’t give up,” Guillardo said. “He came into the match without the right attitude, I think, and fell behind by a lot. I think it was kind of a learning experience for him.”
Sobrato’s remaining wins were provided in timely fashion by seniors Nik Crawley and Gustavo Ramirez. Crawley pinned Christian Soto 38 seconds into their 145-pound match, and Ramirez — ranked sixth in the section at 285 pounds — teched Nick Lee in the third round, battling back from a 10-point deficit (the scorekeeper mistakenly spotted Lee a 10-0 lead to start the match).
The Bulldogs surrendered 12 points off forfeits; something else they plan to remedy by the end of the season.
“When there’s that many forfeits, you can only do what you can do,” Gomes said. “If you wrestle your hardest, we’ll end up with what we can.”
Guillardo expects to have the 189- and 215-pound spots filled in the coming weeks.
“For the most part, I’m impressed with the guys we do have out there,” he said. “They gave it their all, and that’s mainly what I want every night.”
