A week after knocking off rival Cicero-North Syracuse, the Liverpool wrestling team earned another high-quality win in front of the home folks.
Going up against Fayetteville-Manlius on Wednesday night, the Warriors earned most of its points in the lowest and highest weight classes, which canceled out the Hornets’ strength in the middle weights and led to a 44-27 victory.
Though F-M emerged as the favorite in the CNY Counties League American division following its Dec. 4 win over Central Square, that success didn’t matter much against the Warriors.
Liverpool beat F-M head-to-head in four of the five matches from 170 pounds on up. At 170, Jalen Barron took just 53 seconds to pin Kyle Elander, and Louis Ragonese (182 pounds) followed with a tough 8-4 victory over Chris Dobrzynski.
Mark Williamson lost his 195-pound match to Tim Byrnes 4-0, but Ron Wilson, at 220 pounds, pinned Chris Bortel 42 seconds into the third period, while David Carnie (285 pounds) worked past Jake Okun 6-2.
The Warriors also got four of five matches from 99 to 126 pounds, though two of those were forfeits to Audey Ashkar (113 pounds) and Peter Nash (120 pounds).
Anthony Ianno did wrestle at 126, though, and required just 56 seconds to pin the Hornets’ Liam Welling, while Jerry Nash (99) amassed lots of points in a 10-2 romp over Ben Nosovitch.
Though matches in the middle weight classes included Darren Breen (160 pounds) falling to Tristan Broddus 4-2, Brian Carr had an impressive effort at 145 pounds, shutting out Matt Scalzetti in an 8-0 decision.
As this was going on, C-NS was having little trouble in its match against Auburn, earning a 57-21 victory over the Maroons.
Five different times, Auburn forfeited matches, benefiting Andres Anoceto (220), Travis Harrington (99), Ray Sorenson (106), Robert Rein (152) and Anthony Carella (160), but the Northstars also earned plenty of points on the mat.
It started and ended with pins, as Jerrett Norton, opening at 182, took 1:27 to get his fall over Brendan Malone, and Sam Ruiz (170) gained his own pin to end the night.
In between, Jared West, wrestling at 285, needed just 65 seconds to finish off Duane Diggs, with Joe Barber pinning his 113-pount opponent, Brady Parry, in 1:39. Joe Copani didn’t get a fall at 138, but he did shut out Jeff Thurston 6-0.
Two days later, the Northstars had its meet with Rome Free Academy postponed by winter snows, but Liverpool did get to wrestle on Saturday in the Falcon Duals at Fabius-Pompey, missing out on the team title by a single point.
The Warriors beat host Fabius-Pompey 44-12, routed Onondaga 72-18 and rolled past Homer 63-17, which made the meet against Marcellus the decisive one.
And for 10 matches, all went well. Breen got a pin in the opening bout at 160, as did Ragonese at 182. Williamson shut out Dakota Riggelman 10-0 and, after Carnie lost a tight 4-2 match to John Dunn, Nash beat Riley Donovan 6-1 and Ashkar got a 17-2 technical fall over Sam Rice.
When Nash, at 120, pinned Ben Hood late in the third period, Liverpool led 36-12 with five matches left. But Marcellus would storm back, getting two pins and two decisions to make it 36-31 with one match to go.
All that Richardson had to do in the 152-pound finale was avoid a pin, but Marcellus’ Nathan Lukins managed to earn a fall with just 14 seconds left, giving the Mustangs the full six points and the win in the match – and the dual meet.
Liverpool takes on Central Square Thursday night, a night after C-NS visits West Genesee. On Saturday, the Warriors wrestle in the Phoenix Round Robin Tournament where the host Firebirds, plus Central Square, F-M and Baldwinsville, make up a strong field, while the Northstars go to Gouverneur for the North Country Invitational, facing the likes of Mexico, Indian River and General Bronw.
