Mustangs Continue TCAL Dominance with Impressive Victory
Gilroy – At 6am this morning the Gilroy Mustangs wrestling squad packed up the bus and departed from Gilroy High School to make the 20 mile trek to Freemont for the Mission San Jose Invitational.
But before the Mustangs, two-time Invitational defending champions, headed north they had a bit of unfinished TCAL business they had to tend to, namely a visiting Salinas squad at GHS on Thursday night.
The Mustangs, who crushed Salinas earlier in the year on the road, once again made quick work of their inferior opponent, wasting little time putting the finishing touches on a 57-21 victory.
“We only wrestled five matches. The rest were forfeits,” said assistant head coach Mike Geister, handling the duties for head coach Armando Gonzalez, who was on the mend following minor surgery. “This was a good tune-up for us and gave some other kids, like freshman Julian Gomez, a chance to wrestle. We forfeited two weights and only actually wrestled five matches, winning three and losing two. The rest of the matches we won by default.”
The first of the five matches was the 112 pound weight class which Gilroy’s Martin Gonzalez won 14-1 over Salinas’ Ryan Block. The Mustangs Nico Naranjo then defeated Matthew Acirto 15-0 at 119 pounds. Gilroy’s last mat victory of the night came when Ethan Ogle pinned his opponent Ryan Bradford.
Salinas won the night’s final two matches but it wasn’t nearly enough to contend for the victory. In the 160 pound match Gilroy freshman Gomez was pinned early in the first round by Salinas’ Marco Orozco and in the 189-pound match Gilroy’s Adam Fortino lost 10-6 to Salinas’ Santiago Erazo.
“In this weekend’s match we have six wrestlers seeded either one or two,” Geister said. “We’re hoping to get seven or eight wrestlers into the finals and win the Mission San Jose Invitational for the third straight year.”
Gonzalez, Gilroy’s head coach, is expected to be back with the team late Friday or definitely by Saturday’s final round.
