Every winter, the Marcellus and Sknaeateles wrestling teams take their neighborhood rivalry to the mat, and it rarely fails to disappoint.
In the case of Thursday night’s showdown, the host Mustangs were in it all the way to the penultimate bout, but could not quite catch the Lakers, taking a 39-33 defeat.
Since they started at 120 pounds, Marcellus got a 9-0 jump on Skaneateles, as Zach Ruggles turned back Max Collier 11-4 in the opener and Sam Rice (126 pounds) managed to pin Matt Goetzmann with 50 seconds left in their bout.
But Skaneateles countered with wins in the next four bouts, three of them close decisions. Tristan Duger (132 pounds) lost 4-3 to Josh Brillo, with Dan Tierney (145 pounds) taking a 4-1 defeat to Maverick Janes and, at 152 pounds, Nate Long seeing Andrew Newton parlay a single escape into defeating Long 1-0.
Trailing 15-9, the Mustangs tied it when Nate Lukins (160 pounds) pinned Lucas Sherman midway through the second period, and went in front 21-15 with a forfeit to Kevin Morrissey at 170 pounds.
Just as quickly, though, Skaneateles roared in front 33-21 due to two pins and a forfeit. But John Dunn, at 285 pounds, tried to start a Mustang comeback by stopping Cooper Pitman 5-2, after which Riley Donovan (99 pounds) got a third-period fall over J.W. Simmons.
Even with that, the Mustangs still trailed 33-30, and any chance at victory was snuffed out when Alex Czerniak (106 pounds) took a pin against Nevan Rourke. But Marcellus finished strong as Ben Hood won a tough 2-0 decision over 113-pound opponent Joey Brillo.
A night earlier, West Genesee hosted Liverpool and lost, 48-30, the key coming from the fact that the Warriors won each of the bouts in the four lowest weight classes, adding up to 24 points thanks to two pins and two forfeits.
Elsewhere, it was on more even terms. At 138, Yvan Kouakou pinned Zach Curcie in 2:20, with Liam Kotas (152) taking 14 seconds than Kouakou for his fall over Will Ronan.
Pete Zholobov, wrestling at 170, worked in that same general time frame, pinning Jalen Barron midway through the second period, with Zach Valerino gaining a dramatic pin at 285 when he put David Carnie’s shoulders on the mat with just five seconds left.
In two of the night’s better bouts, Tyler Heggelke, at 126, edged past Anthony Ianno 4-3, while Dalton Elias held on at 182 to beat Louis Ragonese 7-4. In two other close contests, Keisean Canery (195) fell to Mark Williamson 3-1 and Odae Badwan, at 132, lost a 9-7 decision to Mike Mills.
The Wildcats lost all five of its matches at Saturday’s Baldwinsville Dual Meet. WG got closest against CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt (41-24) and Fayetteville-Manlius (43-24), but had more lopsided defeats to tournament champion Central Valley (61-15), Brockport (63-13) and Vernon-Verona-Sherrill (61-15.).
West Genesee and Marcellus face each other this Thursday night at WG’s home gym, and it’s Alumni Wrestling Night for the Wildcats. All former WG wrestlers are invited to the meet and a reception that follows at Stein’s (formerly McNamara’s) in Camillus.
