Dos Pueblos wrestled Tuesday night like a team that was hungry to win a championship.
The Chargers recorded three pins and won 11 matches overall to devour arch-rival Ventura, 45-6, and capture their third straight Channel League dual meet title at Sovine Gym.
Senior Tommy Johnson, who in early November contracted a serious virus and was placed into a medically induced coma, provided a huge lift for the Chargers early in the match as he scored a come-from-behind 7-4 decision over Ulises Sosa at 160 pounds to give them a 6-0 lead.
“I had to come back and battle through adversity, do what I know what to do and wrestle hard,” said Johnson of the win.
Johnson knows all about dealing with adversity.
He was starting for the football team when an infection invaded his body, stressed his heart and shut down his organs. He was hospitalized for a week and needed a month of recovery before feeling normal again.
“I’m just glad to be back out here and healthy,” he said. “I worked hard to get back in shape and I’m just glad to be back on the mat and back with my buddies.”
Johnson started competing again about two weeks ago. “It took awhile to get my cardio back up and everything like that,” he said.
“That’s an amazing story,” DP coach Anthony Califano said of Johnson’s comeback. “It’s great to have Tommy back in the lineup, and what a way for him to get out here and help us win a league title. How awesome is that?”
Noam Dessilbourg followed Johnson with an impressive performance, putting the Cougars’ Juan Uribe on his back and pinning him just 48 seconds into their bout at 170 pounds.
“Noam is fun to watch. It’s almost like we get to sit back and enjoy Noam. There’s some coaching going on but we sit back and enjoy Noam,” said Califano.
Ventura won the next two bouts before Joel Garcia started DP on streak of eight straight victories. Garcia had a tremendous third period, scoring 11 points in his 16-6 decision over William Cantrell at 220 pounds
Erick Nisich was awarded an escape point on a restart in the second period and he made it stand up for a 1-0 win over Mathew Pinto at 285 pounds.
Moving into the lightweight divisions, Sean Yamasaki overcame a couple of nullified takedowns and a 2-0 deficit against Miguel Ramirez and won the 106-pound match 9-4. Like Garcia, Yamasaki came on strong in the final period, breaking a 2-2 tie and outscoring Ramirez 7-2 the rest of the way. He scored two near falls down the stretch.
“We wrestled real well tonight and we are peaking at the right time,” Califano said. “We’re relaxed and we’re having fun. We’re working hard and we’re pressing people, and that’s the idea, to take them into the third period and see how their conditioning is because we put a lot of emphasis on conditioning.”
Kade Uyesaka scored six points in the final period before pinning Diego Garcia at 113 pounds, giving Dos Pueblos a commanding 28-6 lead.
Diego Cruz put on a dominating performance at 120 pounds and scored a technical fall against Ventura’s Gabriel Cline, 17-2.
“He wrestled an incredible explosive match. That’s the best he’s wrestled all year,” raved Califano of Cruz.
Josh Coronado picked up where Cruz left off, building a 7-0 lead before pinning Joe Alamillo with 56 seconds remaining in the second period of their 126-pound match.
“That’s the best he’s wrestled,” said Califano.
In the closest match of the night, Aidan Yamasaki of the Chargers scored a takedown with 20 seconds left in a one-minute sudden-victory overtime period to beat Joel Lopez, 6-4.
Senior and two-time league champion Ryan Fidel was next up at 138 pounds. Ventura, however, decided late to forfeit the match, so in order for Fidel to wrestle on Senior Night, coach Califano took a double forfeit at 138 and moved Fidel to 145 pounds.
Fidel got a hold of Alex Ramirez’s leg and made a quick move to take him to the mat for a two-point takedown. He scored an escape point and finished with a takedown in the last 26 seconds for a 5-0 victory.
“That’s probably their best kid besides their 182 pounder (Rupert Ramos),” Califano said. “Ryan went out there and wrestled a very solid, smart match and put some good combinations together.”
Jaeden Martinez started the evening for the Chargers with a 5-1 decision over Pedro Cuevas.
“It was unbelievable how we wrestled tonight. It was fun,” said Califano.
Fidel has been a part of all three league titles.
“It means everything” he said of the team’s dominance. “Just getting back and beating Ventura, especially because they’ve been league champs forever. Growing up with my dad coaching, I was always here and we’d always lose to Ventura. And just to finally beat them and get our league championships is really nice.”
Dos Pueblos now heads into the postseason. First up is the CIF Duals, which the Chargers are hosting on Saturday. The following week is the Channel League Championships at Santa Barbara High.
