Huskies make noise in close defeat to Deer Park

Involved in three tough matches, the Othello Huskies finished second to the defending state champions in a 38-30 loss against Deer Park.

"We wrestled as well as I had hoped to," Othello head coach Ruben Martinez said. "Everyone, including ourselves, knew that Deer Park is and has been tough all year and we were hoping to wrestle tough against them and we did.  We came up a little short, but I was pleased to see us get the first three weight classes."

In their opener, a 34-24 win over White River, Othello earned points via pin through the performances of Isiah Barrera (103 pounds), Lucas Garza (119 pounds), and Matthew Melo (152 pounds).

The rest of the dual saw some very close and competitive matchups.

Colton Rodriguez (125 pounds) earned an 11-7 win, while Levi Garza took a 9-4 win at 130 pounds.

Matthew Jordan picked up three points for Othello with a 9-5 win at 135 pounds and Eddie Garza took home four points with a 12-2 win at 145 pounds.

The final Huskies points came by virtue of Amando DeLeon's 4-2 win at 160 pounds.

Against the host East Valley team, Martinez's troops escaped with a 34-30 win, the difference being a forfeit victory at 112 pounds.

On the mat, Eddie Garza, and Joey Gomez (215 pounds) scored 12 teams points via pin.

Barrera (13-10), Jordan (11-1), Stevie Garza (11-9), DeLeon (10-5), and Alberto Vargas (189 pounds, 5-3) all scored decision victories to catapult the Huskies to the team win.

Despite winning those two tough battles, they couldn't carry that momentum into their final match and eventually lost to Deer Park.

The Huskies earned wins in the first three classes as Barrera and A.J. Garza (112 pounds) scored pin wins and Cole Harris earned a 4-2 victory.

Jordan scored a first round pin and DeLeon a 3-1 narrow victory at 171 pounds, while Gomez earned a first round pin as well.

Vargas wrapped up the Huskies' scoring with an 8-3 win.

"We will use those things we did correctly and those minor things that we can correct and take that knowledge into this Thursday's match against Selah for the CWAC League title," Martinez said. "I was very proud of how our kids wrestled overall this past weekend."