Jaguars come close, but can't find elusive first win

Austin Bernard makes the tag on a Mustang runner at second base.


Valley Center’s varsity baseball team continues to search for its first win of the season, as the Jaguars came up just short in another close game, falling 3–2 to Otay Ranch on Thursday.
The Jags played outstanding defense and got stellar pitching performances out of starter Conrad Murphy and reliever Dan Henderson in the tight game, but couldn’t overcome mental errors on the base paths late in the game.
Otay Ranch scored all three of its runs in the top of the third inning, when a leadoff walk was followed by a base hit, another walk and another base hit off of Murphy, who left the game in the middle of the inning and received attention from the trainer on his right arm.
Henderson came on in relief and retired the next two hitters, then went on to strand eight runners in the final three innings of the game, thanks in part to great location on his pitches and excellent defense behind him.
On offense, the Jaguars took a few innings to figure out the hard-throwing Mustang pitcher and couldn’t string together any scoring chances until the third inning. In the third, Zach Dewey got on first after an error by the third baseman, but even with a total of four base runners in the inning, a pair of fielder’s choice outs prevented any runs from crossing the plate.
The Jaguars stranded two more runners in the fourth before scoring their first run in the fifth, when Austin Bernard doubled with one out and came in to score on a two-out RBI double by Steven Coe. The second run came across in the sixth, when Valley Center loaded the bases with two outs and got a run in on an RBI single by Bernard. The inning could have turned out to be even bigger, but on the run-scoring hit, John Watkins was caught between second and third base and tagged out to end the inning.
The Jags got one runner on base in the bottom of the seventh, when Ryan Bracken was hit by a pitch for the second time in the game, but they couldn’t bring him home.
“It’s a tough one, but it’s good to see these guys battle, and to see that they’ve got a pulse,” manager Cliff Bernard said after the game. “They believe that they can win every game, and that’s a good team, ranked number seven in the county, and we can play with them. But it was good to see that, even though we got down, we came back. We’ve got guys who want to compete, who don’t go out easy, who respect the game and end up with a dirty uniform. As a coach, those are the guys you want on your team.”
Bernard led the Jaguars with a double, a single, an RBI and a run scored, while Coe had a double and a single with an RBI, Watkins, Ricky Eldridge and Tommy Aguilar each had a hit, and Eric Brothers scored a run.
Murphy was saddled with the loss after giving up three earned runs on three hits, with four walks and two strikeouts, in two and a third innings pitched. Henderson finished the final four and two thirds with out allowing a run, while giving up four hits and three walks.
The loss drops Valley Center to 0–5 on the season so far, with the next game coming on Saturday at Mira Mesa at 11 a.m.

Five wrestlers take first place as Jaguars win Escondido Rumble

On Friday, 26 Valley Center wrestlers traveled to Escondido High School for a two-day wrestling extravaganza called The Rumble, and after a day that lived up to its name, the Jaguars came away with the tournament championship.
Each wrestler was guaranteed five matches, and those with highest win/loss records were entered into the medal tournament, where they could wrestle three additional matches. Sixteen Jaguars advanced to the medals’ tournament, with five winning championships in their respective classes—Sam McCuskey (98 pounds), Dustin Miller (106 pounds), Manny Boyle (122 pounds), Damian Stehly (173 pounds) and Travis Weddington (217 pounds).
Meanwhile, John Mayo took second at 98 pounds and Trevor Ryback finished third at 115 pounds. Four Valley Center wrestlers took fourth—John Murphy (114 pounds), James Oakley (122 pounds), Daquota Avila (138 pounds) and Kevin Izadi (heavyweight).
Five Jags finished seventh in the tournament—Zach Dewey (128 pounds), Kaulana Miller (128 pounds), Christian Guerrero (133 pounds), Jesus Diaz (191 pounds) and Lorenzo Gomez (heavyweight).
After more than 120 individual matches, 11 Jaguars earned medals for finishing in the top four.
But the biggest surprise of the day was winning the tournament championship. The tournament’s design is give underclassmen more opportunity to wrestle prior the entering the CIF tournaments. The Jaguars gained valuable experience that will be helpful for this coming CIF Division IV Tournament coming up on Saturday at Olympian High School in Chula Vista. Wrestling begins at 9 a.m. with the championship finals scheduled at 6 p.m.
The Valley Center wrestlers suffered a setback with a league finale loss to Del Norte High School, 39–27, on Thursday.
Two forfeits and some lackluster performances led the Jaguars to their demise, but two Jags won by pin—Juan Oros at 105 pounds and Dustin Miller at 114 pounds—while Christian Guerrero won a 5–4 decision at 132 pounds and Dylan Smith won a technical fall at 173 pounds.
The Jaguars finish the season in third place in Valley League with a 3–2 league record and a 4-4 overall mark.

Oros wins, Jags take ninth in San Pasqual wrestling tourney

Senior wrestler Juan Oros not only won the 105-pound weight class, but was also given the Most Outstanding Lightweight Wrestler award in the San Pasqual Wrestling Tournament this weekend.
The day didn’t start off as planned for Oros, however. Overweight by nearly a pound with only thirty minutes to shed the weight, Oros had to somehow work the weight off in the back seat of Coach Miller’s pickup truck. With the heater blasting, Oros did sit-ups and pepper-steps in the back seat until he arrived at San Pasqual High School right on weight.
Pinning all three opponents on the way to the finals, Oros was confident that he would win the championship. However, his finals match-up opponent, Jordon Griffin of Hilltop High, had other plans.
Oros spent a lot of energy executing two hard driving takedown attempts in the first period, only to come up scoreless. What was expected to be an easy victory for Oros turned out to be an aggravating, back-and-forth battle that ended up a tie in regulation time. So the match went into sudden death overtime, first takedown wins. Griffin attempted and nearly scored a double leg takedown, but Oros was able to counter the attack and stepped over for the takedown and the championship.
Junior Dylan Smith continued his winning ways at 162 pounds by finishing third place. Placing in their first varsity tournament, junior Damian Stehly finished third at 173 pounds, sophomore Daquota Avila finished second place at 137 pounds, and sophomore Christian Guerrero finished in fifth place at 132 pounds.
The Jaguars finished ninth as a team in a field of 23 schools.
Bouncing back from a Valley League loss to Orange Glen Patriots, 52–19, the Jaguars defeated the San Dieguito Academy Mustangs, 60–12. Individual winners were: Juan Oros (105 pounds), Zach Dewey (127 pounds), Christian Guerrero (132 pounds), Daquota Avila (137 pounds), Kevin Murphy(147 pounds), Damian Stehly (162 pounds), Dylan Smith (173 pounds), Jesus Diaz (191 pounds), and Aydin Cooper (heavyweight).

Jags win first home wrestling dual meet in three years

Dustin Miller flips over in the 103-pound match:
Connor MacFarlane twists to get out of a hold in the 112-pound match:
Trevor Ryback fought back from certain doom to win the 119-pound match:
Zach Dewey fights for position in the 130-pound match:
Daquota Avila rolls over his opponent in the 140-pound match:
Kevin Murphy sizes up his opponent in the 145-pound match:
Damian Stehly gets his opponent off the ground in the 160-pound match:
Dylan Smith goes for a hold in the 171-pound match:
Jeremy Halligan grapples with his opponent in the 189-pound match:
Travis Weddington tries to get the upper hand in the 215-pound match:
photos by Dan Kidder

Despite missing one of its top wrestlers, the Valley Center varsity wrestling team pulled together and won its first home dual meet in three years with a 39–36 win over San Pasqual on Thursday.
With Juan Oros out with a rib injury, two Jaguars won by pin, while four more earned wins to propel the Jaguars past the Eagles.
“After the 2008 Valley League/CIF team of ten seniors graduated, we began a three-year building cycle,” head coach Clay Clifford said. “With a win like this, it looks like we have turned the corner.”
Trevor Ryback earned the first pin for the Jags, pinning Brian Pansegrau in 1:19 to win the 119-pound match. Damian Stehly also won by pin, taking down Mike Anastasia in 3:43 to win the 160-pound match.
Dustin Miller started off the match with a 7–1 decision in the 103-pound match, while Zach Dewey won an 8–4 decision in the 130-pound match, Daquota Avila won by technical fall, 16–0, in the 140-pound match, and Dylan Smith won a 12–1 decision in the 171-pound match. Two Jaguars also won by forfeit, while Valley Center forfeited one match in the meet.
Then on Saturday, the Jaguars competed in the 34th annual Jim Londos Tournament at Orange Glen High School in a field of 36 schools. Overall, the Jags finished in 12th place with 64.5 points, as four wrestlers finished in the top ten in their class.
Miller led the Jaguars with a third place finish in the 104-pound class, while Smith took fifth in the 172-pound class, Stehly finished seventh in the 161-pound class and Aydin Cooper finished seventh in the 216-pound class.
Over Christmas vacation, the Valley Center wrestlers competed in the Santiago High “Shark Tank” Tournament, in a field of 56 schools, as well as the Mira Mesa Team Tournament, in a field of 12 schools.
Oros was the lone survivor of the “Shark Tank” tournament, finishing sixth. He lost a heartbreaker match in the semi-finals, falling to Coachella Valley’s Sergio Hernandez, 4–3. Ahead 3–2 with seven seconds left in the match, Oros suffered a last second takedown to end the match. In his next match, Oros sustained a rib injury, so he was pulled out of the tournament and finished sixth.
Meanwhile, Smith went 3–2 before being eliminated, and both Stehly and Cooper finished with 2–2 match records. One of the most exciting early round matches of the tournament was Cooper’s 27–22 loss to Buena Park’s Jake Wiggens. The match had the entire crowd riveted on the outcome and left both wrestlers were exhausted.
The JV wrestlers competed at the Mira Mesa Team Tournament on Dec. 30 and brought home a pair of gold medals.
John Murphy and James Oakley both went 5–0 to receive gold medals. Dewey received a silver medal for 4–1 record, while Kaulana Miller and Lorenzo Gomez received bronze medals for their 3–2 finishes.
The Jaguars are now 1–2 overall, and Thursday night at 7 p.m. is a league showdown at Orange Glen.