Photo by Kayla Young
Tommie Hooper surprised fans in McNeal Friday as he defeated No. 1 ranked Sabas Cruz of Menlo 14-2.

With veteran leadership and high-energy young hopefuls, the Raiders dominated the three-way duel, Friday in McNeal Pavilion.

The No. 5 Southern Oregon Raiders took on Simon Fraser and No. 3 Menlo College in the three-way duel, the first home bout for the Raiders this season.

The three schools battled through out the day, during which the Raider would score wins against both teams. First the Menlo team took on Simon Fraser, which the Oaks scored an easy 39-11 victory over the Simon Fraser Clan.

The Clan next faced the Raider team in the second duel of the day. Freshman Mitchell Lofstedt won the first match due to a forfeit giving the Raiders an early 6-0-team lead. Next, Trevor Lofstedt took the mat at 133 pounds looking calm and collected but dropped the match 0-6, closing the gap of the Raider team lead to 6-3.

“It was my first match at 133 this season,” said Lofstedt. “I felt really tired at first.”

The Raiders won their next five matches with No. 2 ranked Barry Johnson earning a pin, No. 8 Seth Roy scoring a 10-3 win, Tommie Hooper scoring a pin, a Simon Fraser forfeit at 174 pounds, and first-year transfer Chris Platt earning a 10-0 win.

“These were big seeding matches today. I’m glad we got the wins today,” said Johnson, who was very pleased with his team’s efforts.

The Raiders’ efforts lead to a 35-3 lead after eight matches with victory in their sights. Chase Locke, ranked No. 5, dropped his match 3-9 followed by No. 3 John Bates losing a close 2-3 match against No. 4 Arjan Bhullar. But it would be the Raiders who earned the 35-9 team victory.

With one team victory in the bag, Southern looked to take on an experienced team in No. 3 Menlo University.

The Menlo team started the match with senior Jose Hernandez, ranked No. 3, against Mitchell Lofstedt. Lofstedt, the three-time high school state champion, held strong but lost the match to Hernandez 5-1.

Trevor Lofstedt returned to form against Menlo’s Aaron Garcia and score a big win. Lofstedt scored a two-point take down and had Garcia bent like a bow with an injury time-out called. Lofstedt held a 5-0 lead after the near fall. Trevor scored a pin in 5:38 giving the Raiders a 6-3 team lead.

The Raiders team would go on another dominating streak with Johnson getting three near falls and scoring an easy 8-3 win. Roy took a 4-1 win over Josh Emmett giving the Raiders a 12-3 team lead.

The surprising match of the day came at 157 pounds when the Clan’s No. 7 Sabas Cruz faced off against Hooper. SOU’s Hooper was aggressive and dominating against Cruz and scored a 16-3 win.

“Hooper’s a go’er,” said head coach Mike Ritchey. “He’s a solid, aggressive kid.”

Shaun Ceremello stepped on the mat next for the Raiders against No. 1 Robert Davis. Ceremello took Davis to the last seconds of the match. Ceremello scored a two-point fall in the final 19 seconds of the match earning a 4-3 win and increasing the team lead to 19-6.

Platt and Locke scored back-to-back pins giving the Raiders a 31-6 lead.

John Bates, No. 3, scored a 10-2 dominating win and ended the meet with a team Raider 35-6 victory.

“We really got after it today,” said coach Ritchey. “We were very aggressive today.”