Buhach Colony’s Rosales wins elusive CCC championship

Juan Rosales was ready to empty the tank. The Buhach Colony High School senior wanted to capture that elusive Central California Conference championship.

Rosales let out a roar as he lifted Turlock’s Dominic Silva off the mat and deposited him on the ground. Silva was able to get to his knees, but as he tried to stand up, Rosales swept his leg out from under him and pounced on top to record the takedown in overtime to secure a 9-7 sudden-death victory in the 162-pound final at Thursday’s CCC Championships at Turlock High.

“I used all my energy I had in my tank,” Rosales said. “I didn’t want to go another round. I wanted to get in and get out. Just get the win.”

Rosales finally brought home a CCC championship in his final shot.

He made the finals as a sophomore but lost. Last year he finished fourth. He was determined to go home with a title this year.

“That’s why I was really excited,” Rosales said. “I wanted this one.”

Rosales seemed in control of his match against Silva early, leading 5-1 late in the second round.

However, Silva picked up an escape point late in the second round and early in the third to cut the deficit to 5-3. He then caught Rosales and put him on his back for a takedown and two quick near-fall points to surge ahead 7-5 midway through the third round.

Rosales was able to force overtime by recording an escape and then seemed to get the benefit of the call when Silva was penalized for fleeing the mat late in the match, which tied the score at 7-7.

Rosales was able to dig deep to pull out the victory in overtime.

“I’ve been in a couple of overtime matches,” Rosales said. “It’s a gut-wrenching feeling. The matches are so close they can go either way.”

Rosales was one of six local wrestlers to take home a championship. Joining Rosales was Thunder teammate Kyle Downs (115 pounds). The other four were from Golden Valley in Caydin Wickard (108), Mateo Samuelson (140), Immanuel Wright (147) and Cortland Morse (222).

After winning the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II dual championship last weekend, Pitman ran away with the CCC championship with 230 team points. The Pride were led by five individual champions in Trevor Mattox (122), Adam Velasquez (128), Joseph La Rosa (154), Isaiah Perez (172) and Julian Barrera (287).

Golden Valley finished second with 185 points to edge out Turlock (184). The Bulldogs had three individual winners in Alex Olveira (134), Adelo Fields (184) and Breck Jeffus (197).

Samuelson sacrificed a front tooth to become a two-time CCC champion.

The Cougars 140-pounder had his tooth knocked out during his semifinal win over El Capitan’s Nathan Gonzalez earlier in the day.

Samuelson started his finals match against Turlock’s Alexander Ceja with gauze crammed into the space where his tooth used to be and he fell behind Ceja 6-1 early in the second round.

“Missing the tooth was messing with my head,” Samuelson said. “I was like, ‘Man, I’ve got to do something.’ It cost me a tooth in the semis. I had to bring home the title.”

Samuelson stormed back with a takedown and two near-fall points and trailed by just one point heading in the final period.

Samuelson dominated the third period, outscoring Ceja 6-1, including three more near-fall points to win 13-9.

“I could tell he was breathing heavy going into the third round,” Samuelson said. “I figured things were going my way at that point. I had to stay aggressive and give it my all.”

Wickard started the finals off with an exciting 6-4 win in overtime against Pitman’s Izzy Tubera.

The Cougars freshman came back from a 4-2 deficit with a takedown late in the second round to tie the match at 4-4. Tubera was then able to ride Wickard out for the entire third period to send the match to overtime.

“I was disappointed,” Wickard said. “I know I should have done better in that third round. I need to work on some things from bottom to get that escape.”

Wickard was able to record the takedown to win the match with 20 seconds left in the sudden-death period.

“I ankle-picked him,” Wickard said. “It was hard because he locked in with his legs. All I had to do was get my arm out and score the takedown.”

The top four finishers from each weight class advance to the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I-AA Tournament next week at Pitman High in Turlock.

This story was originally published February 9, 2017 at 9:07 PM with the headline "Buhach Colony’s Rosales wins elusive CCC championship."