Golden Valley wrestlers earn late pin to defeat Merced to win section dual championship
The Golden Valley High boys wrestling team avenged a loss to crosstown rival Merced earlier this week by defeating the Bears in dramatic fashion to win their first Sac-Joaquin Section team dual championship on Saturday at Lincoln High in Stockton.
Cougars 146-pound wrestler Aizen Molina trailed 5-1 in the final match before Molina pinned his opponent with 4 seconds left in the second round as Golden Valley defeated Merced 40-36 to win the Division III championship.
“He fell behind and it got scary really quick,” said Golden Valley coach Chopper Mello. “Aizen didn’t quit and he found a way. It was pretty wild.”
Merced snapped a 22-match losing streak with a 38-27 victory over the Cougars to win a share of the Central California Conference championship on Tuesday.
Merced came into the dual tournament as the top seed and defeated Johansen 50-18 in the first round and West Park 43-27 in the semifinals. Golden Valley was seeded No. 3 and defeated Roseville 55-12 in the first round and then edged Vista Del Lago 37-36 in the semifinals.
“On Tuesday I told our guys that loss doesn’t define us,” Mello said. “We focused and we got ready for Saturday and that’s all we did for the rest of the week. Our guys took it to heart. Merced earned that win on Tuesday but we wanted to start a new streak.”
Mello made a couple changes to his lineup, bumping up Austin Mello and Jayden Richards up in weight.
The moves paid off as the championship match started with Golden Valley’s Isaac Le Blanc, Austin Mello and Richards all picking up pins to give the Cougars an early 18-0 lead.
The Bears battled back with Angel Valenzuela (177 pounds), Eric Almanza (192) and Anthony Nixon (217) all picking up victories.
Nate Granados (113) and Elijah Valencia (120) both picked up victories by pin for Merced. The Bears took their first lead of the match at 36-34 heading into the final match.
That’s when Molina pulled off the big move and earned his pin just before the end of the second round.
It’s the third blue section championship banner the Golden Valley wrestling program has won, but first dual championship section title.
“Blue banners don’t come around very often for us,” Chopper Mello said. “And this is four first dual championship, which is something I really wanted to do.”
