![]() Sunnyside wrestlers cheer on a teammate during Thursday's Class 5A-II team state championship match at Hamilton High School in Chandler. Sunnyside beat Yuma Cibola for its 11th straight title.
Ralph Freso / East Valley Tribune
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Sunnyside cruises to 26th state titleArizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.15.2008
CHANDLER — It wasn't always pretty. Sunnyside didn't dominate every match.
As usual, the Blue Devils didn't need to.
Sunnyside did what it needed to against Yuma Cibola in Thursday's Class 5A-II team state championship match, winning 53-13 to capture its 11th straight state title.
It was the 26th championship in school history and the 31st consecutive year the Blue Devils finished either first or second.
Sunnyside defeated Yuma Kofa 44-24 in the semifinals to earn a spot against Cibola, which defeated Ironwood Ridge 42-25 in the other semifinal at Hamilton High School.
The Blue Devils came out of the gate strong in the title match and never let up. Lucio Murillo earned a pin 5 minutes 40 seconds into the 103-pound match to give his team a 6-0 lead it would never relinquish.
And by the time Sunnyside's Mikey Moreno pinned Felix Casas at 125, the score was 17-3.
Cibola's only points of the night came in three minor decisions at 112, 130, and 145, and a major decision at 160.
Blue Devils freshman phenom Kory DeBerry took his time in a 4-1 minor decision in the 135-pound weight class.
Kory's brother, Kyle, who graduated last year after winning an individual state title in all four of his years at Sunnyside, was in attendance Thursday.
Kory DeBerry was one of six Sunnyside wrestlers to win individual championships on Saturday at the state meet.
"I come to watch my brother," Kyle DeBerry said, "but really I've grown up with all these kids. Eleven out of the 14 here, I watched wrestle their very first matches. … To be back here and see all these guys do well, there's no better feeling."
Following Kory DeBerry's match, Cibola split the next four matches with Sunnyside and cut its deficit to 29-13.
That's where Cibola's evening ended.
Sunnyside earned pins at 171, 189, and 215 to make the score lopsided.
The final match of the night, for the 285-pound heavyweights, arguably was the most entertaining — and the most controversial.
Sunnyside's Anthony Pike taunted his opponent, Ray Torres, throughout the match. Pike was given a warning, and while the referee's deliberated how many points to award Torres, Pike and the Cibola contingent began to argue.
The match continued until the end of the second period, when Cibola decided to forfeit the bout and end the match.
Pike was awarded six team points, bringing Sunnyside's margin of victory to 40.
Blue Devils coach Bobby DeBerry said he had been preparing for Cibola for nearly three weeks.
"They were going to be hunt-and-peck," Bobby DeBerry said. "It was going to be like playing chess. You move, I move, you move, I move."
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