By Vern Hee

The Trojans are the first Sunset 1-A league champions. They defeated the Faith Lutheran Crusaders Wednesday, 57-13 to remain undefeated in league.

Craig Rieger, head Trojans wrestling coach, told his team to never underestimate Faith Lutheran. The school has a lot of money to invest in their teams and recruit top athletes. The new Faith coach, Joshua Shumacher, coached at Cimarron Memorial High School and has coached a lot of top-notch wrestlers, according to Rieger.

The match started off slow after the Trojans lost the first bout in the 106-pound class, but it did not take long for the Trojans to pick up steam with several wins in the lightweight division. Levi Gundacker, 113 class, thrilled the crowd by downing his opponent in 49 seconds. This tied the match at 6-6.

Sam Gomez at 120 pounds was not to be outdone and pinned his man in 15 seconds. This gave the Trojans a lead, 12-6, and from that point on the Trojans could not be stopped.

The Trojans from the 138 class won eight bouts in a row.

Every wrestler wrestled hard to help the Trojans keep their perfect season, some more than others.

Last week at the Mohave Invitational, Dilyn Vargas, in the 170 class, suffered a separated elbow and is out for the season. This left a hole in the lineup that had to be filled.

Jake Paus, a senior, stepped up and lost the weight necessary to fill the spot vacated by Vargas. During the week he had to go from 180 to 170 pounds and once he lost the weight he then had to beat his man. Losing the weight can be hard but then having to wrestle afterwards, that is tough.

Paus faltered a bit in his match Wednesday night. He had a 5-2 lead in points going into the third round but this slipped away and it was tied at 5-5 with just seconds to go. His opponent had him.

Paus was on the bottom and it did not look as if Paus would have the strength to get up. The crowd was all shouting, “Get up, Get up.” With just seconds to go Paus got on his feet and that broke the tie and gave him a one point win at the buzzer.

“I had to drop ten pounds in three days. I really did not eat much in three days and felt absolutely horrible. Now that I have eaten I feel great,” said Paus.

Rieger was excited about the win and being the league champs.

“I am glad we got the win. It feels good. It’s good being in this conference and it’s more equal. It feels good to beat Faith after what they did to us in football and basketball,” said coach.

The coach feels his team is looking good going into divisionals, which start Feb. 1 and 2 at Mojave High School in Las Vegas.