Lauren RabainoCal Poly looked to avenge its PAC 10-opening loss to Cal State Bakersfield in its dual with Cal State Fullerton, but the Titans, who rode in on the coattails of a three-match win streak in duals competition, downed the struggling Mustangs 28-9 Wednesday night at Mott Gym.
“It’s definitely rough losing like this but at the same time, we’re a young team and we’re still competing hard,” Cal Poly coach John Azevedo said.
With the loss to the Titans (8-3, 1-0 PAC 10), Cal Poly fell to 3-7 for the season and 0-2 in the PAC 10 following its last home dual of the season.
Cal Poly saw wins from junior Eric Maldonado at 149, junior and No. 11-ranked Chase Pami at 157, and from sophomore Joel Shaw at the 165-pound weight class, but the Mustangs failed to out-do the Titans in the other six matches.
“I thought the guys battled, we’re young though, we’re a young team,” Azevedo said. “It’s not an excuse (though).”
Maldonado scored eight of the final 10 points in his match to battle back from a 6-1 deficit after recording back-to-back escapes followed by two takedowns to finally go up 7-6 over Fullerton junior Matt Lopez with 1:21 remaining in the match.
“That was exciting,” Azevedo said. ” That was kind of the match of the night. It was impressive and fun.”
Maldonado fended off Lopez and recorded two more points to take the match away from Lopez in a 9-6 decision.
“I felt like I had the edge over him as far as conditioning goes,” Maldonado said.
Pami had a firm grip from the start in his match with Titan freshman Steven DeLaFuente. Pami sandwiched two takedowns around an escape by DeLaFuente in the first to go up 4-1 by the end of the period.
After scoring the only point of the second period off of an escape, Pami extended his lead with five more points in the third to pick up his 15th individual win of the season.
Shaw picked up the final team points for the Mustangs after he nabbed two points off of and escape in the second and a point for riding time in the third to top Fullerton’s Brian Stills in a 2-0 decision.
Azevedo noted that the absence of starters in the 125-, 174- and 184-pound weight classes might have been a disadvantage for Cal Poly.
The Mustangs entered the match with a 1-6 record in their last seven duals, which included duals with then-top-15 schools during the Central Coast Duals in San Luis Obispo in mid-December.
The Mustangs will continue their PAC 10 season when they square off against Oregon State on Jan. 23 in Corvallis and then travel to Boise the following day to face the Broncos.
“We (will) just keep battling and get ready for PAC 10 cause that’s where you qualify for nationals,” Azevedo said.