The Sweep of the Battle of the Bone - By Easton Praino
On Wednesday, January 3rd, the Richland Bombers took on the Hanford Falcons for the anticipated Battle of the Bone. The previous season, Richland won, holding the bone for a year. Hanford’s wrestling team was pretty confident about winning 'the bone' this season, per multiple posts from their account on Instagram @hanfordsbestteam and the comments made on a story we covered earlier in the year titled The Rivals? (about the lack of rivalry between school). Hanford's wrestling team said this was the team that was going to beat Richland. When you take a deeper look into Hanford's Wrestling team, they have three studs who all placed in state this year. Headlining this team is Eli Perkes, who took second last season in the state, Caden Wilson, who finished third, and Josh Henning, who placed eighth. Hanford's star wrestler Perkes was out with an apparent neck injury, causing him pain throughout his back. Asking Perkes on his return, he had to say, “Unfortunately, I don’t know the answer. For now, I'm taking it day by day, hoping to be back to state” It was going to be an uphill battle for these Bombers against an experienced Hanford team. Some Bomber star wrestlers to keep an eye on this season are Xavier Salinas, who has wrestling in his blood with his brother last season, placing in the state, an exciting freshman in Drayson Elfring, and sophomore AJ Ochoa.
Spectators could tell from when they were introducing the wrestlers that each team wanted to beat the other one more than anything. Parent and Athletic director Mr.Ochoa has some words to describe this Bomber team, “This team is full of grit, and they were determined to keep the bone.” There were a few duels that defined this matchup. Starting off with Xavier Salinas, Xavier has an extreme bend and knows how to use his body in a scary athletic way. Although Salinas didn't pin in the first round, the second round started faster than lighting. Salinas moved the Hanford wrestler like a rag doll, holding him and pushing his head into the ground, eventually pinning him.
State placer last year, Caden Wilson, knows exactly what he’s doing out there on the mat coming off a back injury from football. It doesn’t look like Wilson has missed a step. Wilson may have been the most dominant wrestler there. He played with the Bomber wrestler dancing around him before he attacked like a snake, taking down the Richland wrestler within a minute to help light a fire for his teammates. About halfway through the duel, Richland was up 24-12. It looked like Richland was going to run away with this one. Gavin Green was down the whole time against his matchup. He had zero advantage the whole time. He was down 7-0 at one point, but at the end of the second round, he hit a second wind and took down the wrestler. The matchup of the night was between Josh Henning and Hector Sanchez. Henning took eight in the state last year. Josh Henning has something to prove this year: wrestling at 205. It was a pretty even match throughout the first round. During the second round, Hector Sanchez showed agility in getting out of tough situations. After the second round, the Bomber wrestlers are up 5-1 in the narrow duel. With the night's upset, Hector Sanchez takes down Henning with fifteen seconds left in the final round. It was a shame we did not see Hanford's best wrestler, Perkes, compete. He wrestled in one of the hardest weight classes and still placed second in the state. The Bombers ended up winning the duel 48-28.
Looking back throughout the matchup, the Hanford boys had some forfeits, but ultimately were not a factor. The Bombers still sealed the deal without the donated points. The ‘hanfordsbestteam” caught some flack on social media by being called out for the trash talk they did not back up. There was a post calling them out for saying they were going to win; the owner of the account, in typical Hanford mindset, seemed not to care about their team's success but more about their own, saying, “IDC, I beat my kid and won my match, so that’s all that matters. 2 state champs in the past 2 years.” Although Hanford has had the “best” wrestler these past few years, Richland still has come out on top. Richland's next matchup will be this Friday at University High School. It'll be a two-day tournament. There will be 17 schools there, including a few MCC teams like Southridge and Hanford.
