Larkin keeps Cross Face Cup
Despite losing the annual battle for the Town Jug in football earlier this year, the trophy case at Larkin will not be completely empty. Using 6 forfeits, the Royals' wrestling team secured a 54-25 victory over host Elgin Friday in the 3rd Annual Cross Face Classic at Chesbrough Field House.
"We lost the Jug for the first time in four years, so it's pretty nice to have this one stay on our side of the river," Royals' coach Steve Hoyt said.
With both teams feeling the effects of injuries, with Elgin down three starters and Larkin down two, both coaches were forced to shuffle their lineups. It was a move that seemed to work on paper in the Maroons' favor as they won 4 of the 7 matches wrestled.
"We're going to go back to the drawing board and work on some stuff," Hoyt said about his team's losses in matches wrestled. "We had some backups filling in who got pinned. Hopefully we can go out and try and get them some more experience.
"We lost 15 seniors from last year, eight regulars on varsity, and only have a couple this year. We are an inexperienced team so hopefully something like this helps us."
But the numbers for the Royals (4-5, 2-1 Upstate Eight River) won out as they had 30 points on forfeits alone. Eileen Bethke (106), Kevin Villalobos (116), Hugo Barraza (126), Ramon Vazquez (145), Hector Perez (170) and Ramon Vargas (195) all won by default for the Royals.
Larkin also used big falls to help ease along its victory despite the Maroons grabbing momentum early in the match. Nathan Romero (132) started the Maroons off on the right foot, dropping Jacob Quintanilla to the mat quickly after the whistle blew and kept him there for most of the match.
Quintanilla was able to get up and away three times but quickly found Romero back on top, with Romero eventually taking a major decision 11-3 to start off the dual. Down 4-0, the Royals quickly bounced back to take a big advantage.
Jose Flores (138) pinned Julian Guiab for the Royals and gave them a 6-4 lead that they would not look back from. A forfeit victory by Vazquez led into another pinfall win, this time by Leo Martinez (152) over Max Troyke, giving the Royals an 18-4 lead.
An 8-3 decision by Elgin's Noe Sandoval over Roosevelt Hopkins-Williams was the closest match of the night and earned the sophomore praise from his coach.
"He got a huge win for us tonight. It was very encouraging," Maroons' coach Jordon Bakley said. "When we look at tonight we aren't going to look at the score. We'll look at match-per-match. Overall we won more matches that we wrestled in and that's what we're taking out of this. It's very encouraging for the rest of the year."
Three more forfeits from either side, one from Larkin and two from Elgin, boosted Larkin's lead even further, stretching it to 30-13 when the Maroons (2-4, 0-2) mounted their comeback.
Tony Huerta (220) and Ariel Torrez (285) both won thanks to pins after getting the lead early. Huerta pinned Aaron Marshall less than a minute into the second period while Torrez downed Adrian Delgado with just under a minute to go in the second and put the Maroons down by just 30-25.
Elgin would not get closer than that, as two more forfeits in a row by Elgin and a pin by Larkin's Luis Gaudarrama (120) over Angel Ocompo gave the Royals the victory and the cup for the second straight year.