Calvary Chapel’s Title Comes Without a Victory

STOCKTON — They might not have been the crowd favorites, but it didn’t matter to the Calvary Chapel Eagles, who won their sixth state wrestling title Saturday at the University of the Pacific.

The Eagles finished with a record 143.5 points--29 points better than second-place Clovis--and are now tied with Clovis for the most team titles in state high school wrestling.

So complete was the Eagles’ dominance that they had already surpassed their 1997 record of 136.5 by three points before Saturday’s consolation and final championship matches.

Defending state champion Poway was third with 95 points.

Calvary Chapel won without an individual champion, but qualified three to championship finals. The Eagles finished with three seconds, one third place and three fourth-place finishes.

“It would have been nice to get a couple of championships, but it’s still great to win like this,” Calvary Chapel Coach John Azevedo said.

It was clear that many in the announced crowd of 7,430 weren’t pulling for Calvary Chapel. Any Eagle opponent was cheered for scoring points.

“When you’re winning, the crowd’s always against you,” Azevedo said. “Look at Clovis, they used to get booed just as much. But it’s no big deal.”

Calvary Chapel’s Steve Esparza faced Michael Simpson of Brethren Christian, the defending state champion at 125 pounds, in the Eagles’ first championship match.

Esparza, who had to forfeit his last two matches against Simpson because of a knee injury, gave Simpson a tough match.

After a scoreless first period, Simpson scored a takedown to open the second and then rode Esparza to close out the period.

An escape in the third capped off the match, giving Simpson a 3-0 victory.

“He’s got a great coach,” said Simpson, who will attend Arizona State. “They watch the films and they teach them how to break down a wrestler.”

In the 135-pound final, Calvary Chapel’s Adam Benitez came out aggressively against defending state champion Alex Tirapelle of Clovis, but Tirapelle’s last-minute takedown gave him a 7-5 decision.

Calvary Chapel’s last finalist, Adam Bones (145 pounds), also wrestled well, but was caught in the last minute of the third period and pinned by Chris Pendleton of Lemoore.

The Eagles’ other medal-winner was sophomore Anthony Archuleta, who won his third-place match at 103 pounds by injury default over Santa Maria Righetti’s Andrew Dominguez. Fidel Archuleta (152), Andy Tufnell (160) and Conan Williams (171) finished fourth.

Loara was the only other Orange County school with a champion.

Junior Orlando Galvan started aggressively in his 103-pound championship match against Merced’s Sal Gonzales.

With a double-leg takedown in the first 20 seconds, Galvan scored first on Gonzales, who beat Galvan at Five Counties this year.

Gonzales scored on an escape to make it 2-1, but Galvan countered for another two points. Gonzales managed his second escape near the ring of the circle, but when he grabbed Galvan’s leg to pull him back in the ring, Galvan caught Gonzales’ heel and took him down on his back for a pin at 1 minute 38 seconds.

“When Gonzales beat Orlando at Five Counties this year,” Loara Coach Larry Hadley said, “the first thing Orlando said to me was, ‘I can beat him.’ ”