Cougars avenge last season's loss to Chelan

WARDEN — The Cougars opened the season with a 39-26 victory over the Chelan Goats. The meet was close in the early going, with Chelan closing the score to 12-9 after the Goats' Anthony Gervais earned a hard-fought 2-0 victory over Warden's Robby Horn in the 285-pound match.

From there, Warden won four straight matches, two by pin and two by forfeit, to build a 36-9 lead that locked up the victory for the Cougars.

At 103 pounds, Johnnie Guerra received a victory by forfeit to get the Cougars going.

In one of the more exciting matches of the night, Warden's Franky Jimenez came from behind to earn a pin of Chelan's Jose Lopez.

Jimenez opened the match with a quick takedown, but gave up a reversal and a takedown to Lopez in the final 30 seconds of the first round to fall behind 3-2. In the second round, Lopez chose the bottom position. With Jimenez controlling him for much of the round, Lopez attempted a dangerous flip-grandby in hopes of catching the Warden wrestler by surprise. However, it was Lopez that was caught, as Jimenez stopped Lopez midway through the move, catching the Cashmere wrestler mid-flip and taking him straight to his back. Jimenez was able to lock up a head-and-arm from the position, which he used to pin the Chelan wrestler with 31 seconds remaining in the second round.

Jesse Guerra turned in a dominant performance at 119 pounds, having his way with Chelan's Hank Burton before picking up the fall midway through the second round. Following Guerra, the Cougars' Josh Reyes received a forfeit victory at 125 pounds. Despite the forfeit, the match was wrestled as an exhibition, with Reyes picking up a first-round pin.

In the match of the night, sophomores Robert Pruneda of Warden and Tyler Allen of Chelan faced off in a match that would go down to the last second. In the 130-pound bout, Pruneda picked up an early takedown, countering Allen's takedown attempt with a standing switch as the wrestlers were going to the mat to pick up the only points of the round.

With Pruneda leading 4-2 and trying to hold on from the top position in the third round, Allen scored a reversal with 20 seconds remaining to tie the bout. Pruneda immediately hit a stand-up, and as Allen tried to bring the Warden wrestler to the mat, Pruneda again hit a standing switch. This time, though, Allen was caught in bad position, allowing Pruneda to take the Chelan grappler straight to his back for a 3-point near-fall and a 9-4 victory.

"I was very pleased," said Warden coach Rick Bowers of Pruneda's match. "That was a nice opportunity (for Pruneda) to see how he fares against a known commodity."

The night's other marquee match up saw Warden's Joel Martinez drop a tough 2-1 decision to Chelan's Tate Collins.

"He went after the guy," said Bowers of his 189-pound wrestler. "He was aggressive on his feet and he worked hard."

In other highlights, Warden's Alan Martinez earned a first-round pin of Yoki Nakamori at 160 pounds. Scott Phillips opened the dual for Warden with a 9-4 victory over T.J. Marchand at 152 pounds. Justin Rollins outworked Chelan's Sean Gervais for a 5-0 decision in which Gervais was twice penalized for stalling.

Chris Kalous was beaten by Chelan's Jose Garcia 18-2 at 135 pounds. A.J. Martinez lost by fall at 140 pounds to the Goats' Gage Schmidt, and Adriel Martinez was pinned by Chelan's Steven Swinford in the 145-pound match.

Warden's Joey Massa lost a 6-1 decision to Davey Anderson at 171 pounds.

"Overall, I was pleased with the night," Bowers said. "We have some things to work on, (but) there's a foundation there."