Carroll wrestling slips past Northwest
Freshmen wrestlers can't be relied on to defeat seniors. Yet two Bishop Carroll ninth-graders scored victories Thursday in the City League dual opener at Northwest.
One of those, Tommy Marquez, scored an 11-2 major decision at 182 pounds that provided four points for the Golden Eagles, who pulled out a 37-36 squeaker.
"It's a great feeling," Marquez said. "I needed to pin him so we could win big."
What made the victory all the more interesting is that Marquez was poked in the eye early in the match and still prevailed.
Carroll coach Jared Vogel said he wasn't surprised by Marquez's victory.
"He's an insanely talented wrestler," Vogel said. "He's very smooth. His technique is very good, and he's very slick at what he does. That is exactly what I expected from Tommy Marquez tonight.
"He was squinting that whole match. He was having a hard time seeing, but Tommy's tough."
Marquez's victory gave Carroll a 31-24 lead, and senior Forest Jenkins followed with a pin over Grizzlies senior Grayson Florentin to put the match out of reach.
"I knew I needed to get the pin, and all of our guys had been working really hard up to that point, so I put him up and down," Jenkins said. "We've lost to them the last two years, and we lost that dual streak my freshman year, and we wanted to get it back there."
Vogel said Jenkins came up to him before his match and offered assurance.
"He knew that he had to win because he knew they were good at 220 and 285," Vogel said. "He told me, 'Coach, I know what I have to do.' Then he went out and did it."
The Grizzlies would get pins from Tyler Keller (220) and Terrez Griffen (285), but fell just a point short, thanks to Marquez.
Northwest jumped to an early 12-0 lead on pins from freshman Mark Guerro at 106 and junior Michael Lindlar at 113. Eric Santiago scored a 7-5 victory eight seconds into overtime for the Eagles' first points.
Carroll then followed with three straight pins — by freshman Joey Sponsel (126), junior Luke Weber (132) and senior Scott Meyer (138) —taking a 21-12 lead.
"We knew going in that the dual was going to be decided in those four or five matches," Vogel said. "They wanted this, and they are hungry."
Northwest's Antonio Terrell scored a quick pin at 145, but then Carroll senior Matt Ziegler pulled out a pin at 1:02 of the third period, boosting the lead to 27-18.
Northwest freshman Saul Ortiz (160) and sophomore Andre Turner (170) won decisions to pull the Grizzlies to within 27-24, setting up Marquez's and Jenkins' heroics.
106—Guerra, NW, pinned Lipinski, 1:51; 113— Lindlar, NW, pinned Pacha, 1:32; 120— Santiago, BC, def. Alberts, 7-5; 126— Sponsel, BC, pinned Cooper, 3:48; 132— Weber, BC, pinned Brazell, 3:25; 138— Meyer, BC, pinned Perez, 3:32; 145— Terrell, NW, pinned Phillips, 1:21; 152— Ziegler, BC, pinned King, 5:02; 160— Ortiz, NW, def. Summervill, 12-7; 170— Turner, NW, def. Nolting, 7-5; 182— Marquez, BC, won by major decision over Hambelton, 11-2; 195— Jenkins, BC, pinned Florentin, 3:35; 220— Keller, NW, pinned Eastman, 2:17; 285— Griffen, NW, pinned Morgan, 0:22.