CORONA — Marley Zepeda has taken on the role of closer for the Santa Ana girls wrestling team during the past week.

And she has not succumbed to the pressure.

Saturday, Zepeda recorded the pinfall that sent the Saints into the CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship match against defending champion Corona. And on Thursday, once again in the final bout of the evening, Zepeda needed only 37 seconds to lock in a pin and secure the six points that lifted Santa Ana to a dramatic 39-34 victory over the Panthers.

“I went out with so much confidence,” Zepeda said of her match Thursday. “I think I’m pretty strong finishing up a dual.”

This marks the second straight year Santa Ana has captured a dual-meet section title, as the Saints were the Division 2 champions last season. Santa Ana handed Corona its first dual-meet loss since 2024, snapping a 30-match win streak.

“We’ve been chasing Corona for years. I’ve been losing to them for 15 years, so it feels good to finally get one on them,” Saints coach Tim Byers said. “It’s a big moment for our program. It’s almost unheard of for a Division 2 team to go up to Division 1 and win the first year. This took an entire team effort by our girls tonight. Win or lose, every person mattered.”

Thursday championship match was a bit of a rollercoaster, as both teams erased double-digit deficits at different points.

Corona (14-1) worked the home crowd into frenzy by winning the first four bouts and racing out to an 18-0 advantage.

Karina Aviles trailed early in the 190-pound opening bout, but she scored a takedown in the second period and held on for a 5-4 decision. Ruby Perez needed only 58 seconds to secure a pin at 235 pounds and push Corona’s lead to 9-0.

Corona’s Sienna Romero and Santa Ana’s Gabriela Martinez waged one of the most exciting matches at 100 pounds. Martinez scored a takedown and was clinging to a 9-8 lead, but Romero scored a reversal with 10 seconds left to win.

Kiem-Ai Pham continued the Panthers’ early run and needed only 64 seconds to secure a pin in the 105-pound bout.

“It definitely was the start we hoped for,” Corona coach Jim Bowers said. “Our girls in the upper weights were a bit of a question mark, but they surprised me and got things going. … Sienna pulled one out, and Kiem-Ai did what she does.”

Santa Ana (12-0) won six of the next seven matches — including four by pinfall — to take a double-digit lead of its own.

Angelica “Cookie” Serratos got things rolling for the Saints with 12-0 major decision at 110 pounds, and Eliana Salazar followed with a 19-2 technical fall in the 115-pound bout. Tiffany Nguyen needed only 13 seconds to win at 125 pounds.

Santa Ana’s Marley Nelson and Corona’s Mackenzie Mendenhall were tied at 6 after the latter scored a takedown early in the third period of the 130-pound match. Nelson took a 7-6 lead after Mendenhall was called for an illegal move, but Nelson wasn’t satisfied with earning three points. She got a reversal and secured a pin with 31 seconds left in the bout.

“I’m coming off an injury, so i was a little nervous,” Nelson said. “I knew that with all my training that I had it inside me.”

Corona’s only victory during that crucial seven-bout stretch was a 12-1 major decision from 120-pounder Itzel Herrera.

“We just didn’t show up the way we needed to,” Bowers said. “I played out like 10 scenarios how this match could go, and we won nine of the them. But there was one — and that was a worst-case scenario for us — where we lost 39-34.

“There were 3 or 4 matches that were going to decide this. And we did things we shouldn’t have done in all of them.”

Santa Ana’s lead swelled to 33-22 after Isabella Garcia (135 pounds) and Yahira Marmolejo (140) came up with pins.

Corona suddenly needed to win the final three matches, and decisions weren’t going to be enough. Jestinah Solomua, as expected, won her 145-pound match by pinfall to cut the deficit to five points. Abigail Gomez was trailing 6-1 midway through the opening period of the 155-pound bout, but she turned the tables and gave Corona a 34-33 lead with a pin.

That set the stage for a winner-take-all bout at 170 pounds. And Byers had all the confidence in the world with Zepeda. Santa Ana’s usual 170-pounder, Aliyah Sandoval, is sidelined with an injury, so Byers had Zepeda wrestle up Thursday.

Saturday’s semifinal against Hillcrest ended at 155 pounds, so Zepeda wrestled at that weight and got the decisive pin.

“I told her, ‘we wouldn’t have moved you up to 70s unless we felt you could to do it,’” Byers said about his parting words to Zepeda before her bout. “She just needed to believe in herself as much as we do. And she got the job done again.”

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