WESTON RANCH — Weston Ranch, East Union and Sonora gathered in south Stockton Tuesday night for a Valley Oak League tri-meet, and the host Cougars came away with a pair of victories, 46-31, over the Lancers and 48-28 over Sonora.

The Wildcats took advantage of three Lancer forfeits in the evening’s first match and downed EU, 43-26.

In that match, the Lancers’ imposing lower weight lineup shined once again, collecting four pins.

Marco Castaneda (119 pounds), Jason Cortez (125) and Matt Neves (140) all grabbed first-round falls, while Stevyn Teeple (130) notched his in the second.

Hector Fajardo, meanwhile, claimed EU’s fifth pin at 215 pounds.

Although the Lancers beat the Wildcats on the mat, three EU forfeits equaling 18 Sonora points gave the visitors from the foothills the win.

“We wrestled pretty well against Sonora,” EU head coach A.J. Reindel said. “We’re still giving up 18 points, I don’t have a full team. If we had the team, we might have a chance. It’s not just bodies, it’s got to be people that know how to wrestle. So it’s going to take some time, but we’re getting there.”

Eddie Reed, Weston Ranch’s heavyweight, got the ball rolling for the Cougars against Sonora, collecting a crowd-rousing pin which fed Weston Ranch’s momentum the rest of the way.

Christopher Rodriguez (112), Michael Salisbery (119) both collected first-round falls, before Grant Mar (125) capped the match with a second-round pin.

Joe Harai kicked off the night’s third match with a pin over Chuck Mayo at 3 minutes, 56 seconds, and Tony Sairi (160) made it 12-0, Cougars with a first round pin of Brandon Roberts (0:32).

Following back-to-back EU forfeits, Weston Ranch’s Chris Contreras moved up to 215 pounds to wrestle Fajardo.

Fajardo collected his second pin of the night when he caught Contreras, took him down and worked the pin at the 1:07 mark of the first.

“At the last moment we decided to wrestle Chris (at 215),” Weston Ranch head coach Pat King said. “I think Chris may have had a mental block going into it. Chris only weighs about 185 pounds, and it’s a big difference. But he’s a fighter, he’ll come back and do well next week.”

Reed was dominant in the heavyweight match, taking down Albert Aguilar for a default loss at the 1:04 mark of the first.

Ortega collected a default fall against Rodriguez at 112 pounds when he was able to work the Cougars’ injured ankle suffered in the training room prior to the Sonora match.

Castaneda followed it up with an 18-3 technical fall over Salisberry, and Cortez won a tight one over Mar, 14-11.

Daniel Garcia (130) beat Teeple, 12-1, but Parsa Davari picked up his teammate at 135 pounds with a 10-3 win over Kevin Zavdia.

Neves claimed a technical fall, 17-0, over Robert Garmiez, and Travis Bowen ended the match with a first-round pin of Marcus Aleman at 145 pounds.

“We wrestled well against Sonora, but I thought we had a little drop-off against East Union,” King said. “Take nothing away from East Union, they match up really well against us. Going in we thought it was going to be really close, (EU’s) 119 to 140’s are tough. They’re loaded.

“But we wrestled well, now the kids are in a position to pick up a couple of wins in Ceres then come back here for Oakdale.”

In Ceres, the T’Wolves wrestled just one varsity match during their tri-meet with Central Valley and Lathrop and came away with a resounding win over the Hawks.

Austin Soto (119) collected a fall in the second, and Robert Howard (125) claimed a technical fall in the third, 17-2.

Cameron Milan (130) picked up a first-round pin and David Ruiz (14) won 14-12.

Aiden Foster (145) claimed a 13-3 win, and Michael Garcia pinned his opponent in the second.

Alex Nuanez needed just 40 second to grab his pin at 171 pounds, and at 189, Oscar Castro did his teammate one better with a 30-second fall.

Greg Cardenas (215) won 3-1, and heavyweight Anthony Colonico picked up a second-round pin.

“We wrestled pretty well,” T’Wolves head coach Frank Sabala said. “We got in a lot of situational practice in the room and we were able to use some of that tonight. We’re right where we need to be, we just need to keep working hard in the room.”

Sierra hosts a tri-meet with Manteca and East Union Wednesday.