Capuchino claims PAL Bay Division crown for first time in program history

With the win, Cap dethrones 2024-25 champ Carlmont to clinch the upper PAL Bay Division dual meet championship for the first time in program history.

“We really came up short last year,” Capuchino head coach Steve Matteucci said. “We weren’t ready. But we were also still in the hunt, we were still in the fight, and decimated with injury. We got several of our guys back this year and we just knew. We’ve been performing well all season long. Injuries haven’t hurt us, and I just knew we had the talent to do it.”

Cap not only rallied back from three deficits in the overall score, two lightweight bouts saw the Mustangs trailing on the scorecard, only to rally back to score pins. In the 134-pound match, Cap’s Brenden Siu was down 7-2 to Caleb Nakagawa but, facing an 11-8 deficit in the closing seconds of the third period, Siu scored a four-point reversal with a near fall just before the buzzer sounded to earn the 12-11 win.

More importantly, the win swung Cap ahead 14-12 on the scoreboard.

“I was just excited I got to put some points on the board for my team,” Siu said of reveling while the Cap sideline exploded in celebration. “I love these guys. I train with them every day. They’re like my brothers.”

At 140s, Cap’s Ayden Osegueda followed with a big comeback of his own against Brandon Nguyen. After a scoring dispute gave Nguyen three more points to put him up 11-4 Prior to the second period, Osegueda started chipping away. He opened the second with a quick takedown, and ended it with a reversal right before the buzzer. It was incidental, as Osegueda scored the pin in the third round.

“We actually lost the match because we had kids that were winning that lost at the end of matches,” Carlmont coach Joe Patane said. “Had those kids finished matches, that would have been a different end result. We had three kids that were winning with like 20 seconds left, and they got pinned. They didn’t just lose, they got pinned. So, you swing 3 here and 3 there, you give us 3 and 3, it’s a different outcome. So, we actually lost the match. They wrestled better than us, but we lost the match.”

The Scots didn’t go quietly, though, and rallied back with wins at 146s from Nick Rivkin and 152 from Nico Foks to swing back ahead 24-20.

It was a notable win for Rivkin, as he pinned the taller Kekoa Kaiwi — “He was one of the tallest wrestlers I’ve ever seen, and he shot the lowest move I’ve ever seen,” Rivkin said. “It’s crazy” — as it marked just the second win of his short varsity career, and his first-ever pin. The match ended in a flurry, as Kaiwi scored a reversal to go up 9-3, only to have his momentum roll through the maneuver and onto his back, where Rivkin was able to capitalize.

“I didn’t reach back for his head,” Rivkin said. “He just somehow flipped under me, and I was just heaving trying to keep him down.”

Carlmont had some early success as well, with Gabriel Osorio pinning Cap’s Ronin Blackner at 122s. Osorio, one of two brothers on Carlmont’s roster, along with Brandon Osorio at 128s, relied on the patented Osorio bridge to earn a pin.

“I had a half, and I do this thing where I kind of stay on my side a lot,” Gabriel Osorio said. “I noticed it was up, and — during practice I get my partner Chris and I flip him, the same way I did to that guy. And I always stick it, no matter what. I have a really good bridge, so I always bridge my way out of it.”

But the Mustangs went on a run through middleweights to take the lead back for good.

At 159s, Daniel Cassemiro earned a 14-4 lead by executing a front tackle takedown, but just missing the pin, to tie the match 24-all. Then at 167s, Sanchez won a war of attrition with a thrilling finish, trailing 4-2 on the card before rolling through a wild exchange to gain the advantage, executing a hip heist sit out and getting the pin to put Cap ahead.

“I was aware I was down 4-2,” Sanchez said. “I looked at my coach, Matteucci. He told me: ‘Shoot! Don’t be afraid!’ It’s one thing he always says: ‘I told you so.’ I trusted him, shot my shot, felt my ankle, pinned him.”

“He gave up a takedown and we thought that was it,” Matteucci said. “That was the pivotal match right there.”

After Cap’s Billy Ferreria won via tech fall at 177s, Carlmont kept its hopes alive at 192s with a pin from Wesley Kron to cut the score to 35-30 with two matches remaining. That’s when Cap turned to heavyweight Kaua Vasconcelos, who was initially penciled in to wrestle in the heavyweight finale. Since the junior weighed in at 210 pounds, however, Cap moved him up to the 217s match.

Vasconcelos — whose family relocated from Recife, Brazil to San Bruno four months ago — is in his first year as a wrestler, but holds a blue belt in jiu-jitsu. Matteucci said Vasconcelos doesn’t know how to wrestle at all, but he can grapple. His skills proved effective, as he scored the match-clinching pin in the second round.

“I was feeling a little bad,” Vasconcelos said. “But my coach told me: ‘Just do what you know how to do.’ So, I went there, I prayed before, I felt confident, and I did what I know how to do.”

In other action, Carlmont’s Jason McDaniel won via pin at 108s. Cap’s Tirso Cabitac answered back with a big at 115s, nearly getting pinned himself by Christopher Lan before executing the reversal and scoring the pin.

“He was almost behind me, he almost got a takedown,” Cabitac said. “And then I just circled and went to his head. I felt the front headlock position, and I just ripped it.”

The Bay Division championship marks the fifth PAL title all-time for the Mustangs. They previously won the lower PAL Ocean Division dual meet crown four times, in 2012, ’18, ’19 and ’20.

“It’s big,” Matteucci said. “Everybody had a part of it. We wrestled 14 matches tonight, and we needed every one of them.”