{"id":2453,"date":"2010-01-07T08:07:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-07T08:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/sports\/tonight-in-long-beach-ml-wrestling-match-of-the-year\/"},"modified":"2010-01-07T08:07:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-07T08:07:00","slug":"tonight-in-long-beach-ml-wrestling-match-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/tonight-in-long-beach-ml-wrestling-match-of-the-year","title":{"rendered":"Tonight In Long Beach: ML Wrestling Match Of The Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

If you’re going to attend just one wrestling dual meet this year,<\/font> Tonight’s Moore League showdown between Lakewood and Millikan<\/font><\/strong> should be it.  The titanic tilt will likely begin at approximately 6:30 p.m. at Millikan after the lower level duals.<\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Lakewood is seeking to defend its four-year stranglehold on the ML crown and has won eight titles in the last 10 years, but many believe this could be the year the Rams reclaim the league championship.<\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Despite losing nine individual league champions from a year ago, overlook the Lancers at your own peril.  Lakewood has been the underdog in previous years and always seems to find a way to come out on top. <\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Both sides agree the key to Thursday night will be if Millikan can stay with the Lakewood lower weights. Lakewood’s Ryan Bautista (119 pounds), Cody Gurule (125) and Kimo Napohaku (135) are arguably the Lancers three best wrestlers and Napohaku is as good as anyone in the area.<\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

If this were the WWE, the match at 135 between Napohaku and Millikan’s Jake Wallace would be called the main event.<\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Napohaku (20-1) and Wallace (19-2) have never met at the varsity level and despite being pretty evenly matched, Napohaku would be considered the favorite.<\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

“Kimo is a great wrestler, but I am really excited about Thursday night,” Wallace said. “I know I can’t let him get me in a pinning position and I am going to have to use my strength.”<\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Napohaku realizes if Lakewood is to maintain its spot at the top, he and his fellow lower weights need to come up big.<\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need pins from Travis Cardwell (112), Ryan Bautista (119), Cody Gurule (125), myself at 135, Nate Batres (140) and our heavyweight Alex Barillias,\u201d Napohaku said. \u201cThose are our best guys and we need them to come through.\u201d<\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

For the Rams, James Kuwata (103), Nick Pena (152),  Zack Woodruff (189) and heavyweight Calvin Gonzales will play a major role if Millikan is to unseat the Lancers.<\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Both sides know they’ll take losses, but that pin-fall defeats have to be avoided.<\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

For the non-wrestling fan, a pin fall victory earns the winning side six team points, while a technical fall (15-point victory) gets five team points, a major fall (9-14 point victory) gets four points and a decision between 1-8 points earns three team points.<\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn’t have a great week in Reno, but even before we left Nevada, I got my guys focused on Thursday and we’ll be ready to go,\u201d Millikan captain Nick Pena said. \u201cWe know what’s expected of us, and now we just need to get out on the mat and do our jobs.\u201d<\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

A win by either side won’t claim the Moore League title, but it will put the victor in a very strong position.<\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Lakewood has already beaten Poly, but the Lancers still face a potentially dangerous Wilson team. Millikan, with a win, would still need to defeat Poly and Wilson.<\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

For Napohaku, he and his teammates won’t go down without a fight.<\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Said Napohaku: \u201cWe know what we have to do to keep the streak alive and we plan on doing it Thursday night. Millikan has been favored in years passed and we’ve come through and won. It all comes down to who wants it more.\u201d<\/font><\/o:p><\/p>\n

Come back to LBPOSTsports tomorrow for the story and pictures!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’re going to attend just one wrestling dual meet this year, Tonight’s Moore League showdown between Lakewood and Millikan should be it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2453"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=2453"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}