A chance for the Baldwinsville wrestling team to get to the top of the Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division standings in front of a home crowd presented itself.
But when the Bees battled Liverpool last Monday night at Baker High School, it could only earn an occasional mat victory, ultimately taking a 59-15 defeat to the Warriors.
Since they started at 152 pounds, B’ville was at a distinct disadvantage, which manifested itself in the form of seven consecutive defeats in the highest weight classes.
Three of them were forfeits at 170, 195 and 220 pounds, but it also included a close 160-pound bout where Connor Kral suffered a 3-2 defeat to Chris Ianno.
Not until it shifted to the lighter weight classes did B’ville get on the board, Jarred McMonagle winning at 99 pounds when he pinned Lucas Smith in 88 seconds.
Keagan Hayes followed at 106 pounds with a second-period fall over Hayley Delia before Aiden Cali won a fun bout at 113 pounds, outscoring Rocco Degiormo 14-9.
Then Liverpool took over again, winning the last five bouts on the card, only one of them close as Mason Clark, at 120 pounds, went to overtime with Jeremy Ianno before an 8-6 defeat.
With little time for a turnaround, B’ville had to meet up with Cicero-North Syracuse two nights later and gained a few more points, but still fell to the Northstars 54-27.
They started at 113, and C-NS won the first seven bouts, including close ones where Clark fell 8-4 to Dan Sweeney and Max Naples, at 120, had a 2-0 overtime defeat to Harrison Portorsnok.
Only at 160 did the Bees get on the board, Kral beating Dylan Firenze 7-3, with Fred Pickard (182 pounds) pinning Chris Mehlek. And it ended with a trio of pins from McMonagle over Anthony Ciciarelli, Cali over Kevin Mossow and Korben Haney (285 pounds) over Brady Ramos.
Now it’s on to the post-season, B’ville to battle for honors this Saturday in the Section III Class AA championships at Auburn, which gets underway at 10 a.m.
