Buhach Colony edges Pitman, moves closer to title

Salvador Sanchez was so nervous the Buhach Colony senior wrestler could barely watch the final matches. The 195-pounder paced back and forth behind the Thunder’s bench.

“I was praying to God to help us,” Sanchez said. “I wanted this badly.”

Sanchez and his teammates were finally able to celebrate as Buhach Colony 152-pounder Titus Sanchez lost the final match to Pitman’s Colby Langford, but most importantly Sanchez avoided being pinned to secure the Thunder’s 30-27 win over the Pride in a battle of unbeaten Central California Conference teams.

The two teams each won seven matches, but the Thunder got pins from Leem Kue (106 pounds), Brandon Mendoza (120) and Juan Rosales (182) for crucial bonus points to edge the Pride and put Buhach Colony in the driver’s seat to clinch a share of its first conference championship since 2007.

The Thunder can clinch a share of the CCC championship with a win over crosstown rival Atwater on Tuesday.

“Since we were freshmen, we’ve lost terribly,” said Salvador Sanchez, who was one of the seven seniors honored on senior night before the match and then defeated Pitman’s Anthony Carbajal 1-0. “Now we’re seniors and we’re dominating and winning big matches like this.”

A conference championship with this group of seven seniors seemed unthinkable to Thunder coach Eric Osmer when they came in as freshmen.

“When this group of seniors were freshmen, I thought there was no chance we would be in this position,” Osmer said. “We were terrible. They worked hard year-round to get to where they are today. The last two years they worked really hard with our spring wrestling, summer workouts, lifting and training in the fall. Now as seniors they are leading the way and our group of juniors have bought into it, too.”

The Thunder built a lead early and then had to hold on late. It was the seniors that helped build the lead as Ben Moran (160) opened the match with a 3-0 win over Joel Angulo. Salvador Sanchez’s 1-0 win extended the lead to 12-3. Fellow senior Mendoza pinned Jose Onate to give the Thunder a 27-12 lead with five matches to go.

“We had our sights set on Pitman ever since we finished our match against Merced,” Mendoza said. “We put all our focus on Pitman because we knew this would be a big match.”

Mendoza dominated his match, jumping out to a 10-0 lead by the end of the first round. Mendoza led 13-0 when he was able to record the pin 47 seconds into the second round.

“This is my last year, it’s senior night, I had to score points,” Mendoza said. “I knew I had to put points on the board. I did what I needed to do.”

The Thunder got some other big wins along the way.

Rosales’ second-round pin of Brendan Tallent proved to be a huge win. Steven Inocencio (220) avenged a one-point loss to Jimmy Villegas at Gilroy this past weekend with a 3-1 win in overtime.

Will Schwertscharf (132) outscored Tondrick Pope 3-0 in the second round and held on for a 4-2 win that gave the Thunder a 30-18 lead with three matches left.

The Pride’s Isaiah Perez (138) and Arthur Clemons (145) both picked up decisions to cut the lead to 30-24 heading into the final match between Langford and Titus Sanchez.

“Sometimes when you’re wrestling a match you’re not supposed to win, your job is to not get pinned,” Osmer said. “You can’t give up the bonus points. Titus is a very smart wrestler. At the beginning of the year, he was too rambunctious. We really settled him down at the Escalon tournament.”

Titus Sanchez was never in danger of getting pinned, and after the final horn sounded, Buhach Colony’s sideline erupted in celebration.

“This is all because of our dedication,” Salvador Sanchez said. “All the work we put in during the summer and spring. All the extra stuff we did. We worked so we could win matches like this.”

This story was originally published January 27, 2016 at 11:22 PM with the headline "Buhach Colony edges Pitman, moves closer to title."