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SENIOR SENDOFF
Lathrop posts four first-round pins in senior night win over Lancers
wrestling
East Union High’s Nick McGill tries to fight off the inevitable when Lathrop’s Omar Guzman locks in on his grip. - photo by HIME ROMERO
LATHROP -- With Lathrop High standing three matches from victory and East Union needing three consecutive pins to bring the match to a tie, the Lancers would only score two pins, giving Lathrop a fitting end to senior night with a 45-36 winWednesday in the Valley Oak League dual match.

Sarah Phillips would open East Union’s last-ditch effort to pull out the match, earning a first round pin in 37 seconds to pull the score to 42-30. Lathrop’s Luis Quintero battled through a tough 112-pound match with Bobby Guillory, outlasting Guillory 8-2 sealing the deal for a big victory in the Spartan program.

“That was a dog fight,” Lathrop head coach Dimos Birakos said. “East Union brought their ‘A’ game and they wrestled their butt’s off; hat’s off to those guys.

“We looked okay, if we’re going to have a chance to beat Sierra, or Weston Ranch we have to step it up.”

The Cougars took a decisive advantage in the match’s middle matches, running the score from 18-12 to 42-12 through weight classes 145 to 189. East Union only had two forfeits in the match, but the majority of the losses (5) came via Spartan pins.

“I was happy just to be competitive tonight,” East Union head coach A.J. Reindel said. “I have a lot of youth and not all of them are freshmen. But I do have some sophomores stepping up.

“I got six points from Sarah Phillips who’s a sophomore and I got six points from Peter Barrington who’s a sophomore.”

Barrington and Phillips were the two who posted pins with East Union in a crisis, both pins came in the first period with Barrington’s coming with him trailing 2-1 to Lathrop’s Marquize Jones in the 119-pound match.

Felipe Duran scored six points in an injury default win at 130s, while Elliot Trip won the 145-pound match with a pin of Oscar Tapia as time expired in the first period.

Lathrop took care of business on senior night with a strong physical presence on the mat. Luis Oregel got things going with a pin with 38 remaining in the first period. His pin at 125 was the first of pins by Christian Pena (140), Omar Guzman (152) Mark Maynard (160) and Oscar Munoz (212) for Lathrop.

The Spartans will try to roll the momentum from the dual-match win into Wednesday’s double-dual match with Sierra and Weston Ranch. All three programs will meet at Weston Ranch and shake the the breakdown of the VOL into place.

East Union will travel to cross-town rival Manteca High’s gym along with Kimball High for a double-dual match.