Oceanside celebrates win over Baldwin

Oceanside’s wrestling team had plenty of motivation heading into its match against rival Baldwin last Friday night. Last season, the Sailors suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Bruins when a penalty for excessive celebration cost them a victory after a thrilling comeback.

This time the Sailors wouldn’t be denied, as they handled a banged-up Baldwin squad, defeating the Bruins 55-23.

“It felt really good,” Oceanside head coach Julio Flores said. “We were coming back from devastation last year. This year we were out for revenge. We came out really hungry to try and get this win.”

Adding to that hunger was the fact that it was Oceanside’s senior night. Before the match a brief ceremony was held to honor the team’s senior athletes. Flores took the microphone and thanked his seniors for helping get the school’s wrestling program back on the winning track.

“Getting a win on senior night is awesome,” Flores said. “All my seniors and juniors that wrestled today really held their own.”

Oceanside dominated the match from the start. The Sailors began the night with a victory in the 99-pound match. Then Mike Fishman made it two victories in a row for his team to start night, by picking up a 12-9 win against Baldwin’s Ronaldo Escobar.

Then in the 120-pound matchup Vinny Candela came away with a 12-0 win, to put his team up 13-4. Kash Calderon picked up a win for the Sailors after an injury depleted Baldwin was forced to forfeit the 126-pound match. This gave Oceanside a commanding 25-4 advantage.

Then senior Luke Evans, who usually is not a starter for Oceanside, got the opportunity to take the mat for his team in the 138-pound matchup. Evans made the most of his chance as he came away with a pin with 1:21 remaining in the first period of the match. “It felt really good to come out with a win,” Evans said. “I felt really pumped up before, because it’s senior night.”

Flores added: “He came out and he was fired up. Today we put him out there, and he did his part and got us a nice pin.”

Baldwin would pick up wins in the next two matches to pull within 20 points. But fortunately for Oceanside the injury depleted Bruins were forced to forfeit at 160, which expanded the Sailors lead to 43-11.

After Oceanside dropped the 182-pound matchup, another senior took the mat for the Sailors. Anthony Pena helped put an exclamation mark on the team’s exciting senior night victory by coming up with a pin with 52 seconds remaining in the second period of the 195-pound matchup.

Coming into the season Flores believed his team was capable of big things this winter. And after the match Baldwin head coach Jim Murphy seemed to be a believer as well.

“Oceanside wrestled well, and they’re a well coach team,” Murphy said. “They’re very young, and they’re going to do very well in the county tournament.”