Two road matches, of varying degrees of difficulty, awaited the Skaneateles wrestling team during last week’s action, and it got through each of them to improve to 14-3 on the season.
In fact, when the Lakers rolled past Morrisville-Eaton 57-24 Thursday night, head coach Dick Campbell said it was as good as the team has performed since the varsity program was revived a decade ago.
They started at 145 pounds, where Mike Goetzmann took just one minute, 35 seconds to pin the Warriors’ Luke Perry. A tough 152-pound bout followed, with Andrew Newton going all six minutes to fight past Josh Farrar 4-2.
From there, the two sides swapped matches, Skaneateles seeing Francis Lombardi, at 170 pounds, pin Robert Hepburn in just 46 seconds and Joey McIntyre (195 pounds) claim a forfeit.
When T.J. Greenfield took the mat at 285 pounds, Skaneateles only had a 21-18 lead, but once Greenfield pinned Trenton Yancey in just 25 seconds, the Lakers’ onslaught began.
J.W. Simmons was just as brisk at 99 pounds, finishing off Steven Rice in 37 seconds. Then, after a defeat and a forfeit to Max Collier at 113 pounds, Skaneateles did not lose again.
At 120 pounds, Joey Brillo held on to beat M-E’s Mason Warner in a 2-1 decision. Nevan Rourke (126 pounds) followed with a second-period fall over Seth Newman, while Josh Brillo (132 pounds) pinned Tyler Ayers in 1:22. To close it out, Matt Goetzmann, at 138 pounds, rallied from a 4-0 deficit against Jared Stevers to force overtime and, with a takedown, win that bout 6-4.
The Lakers first visited Onondaga last Tuesday night, and with most of the bouts uncontested, it breezed to a 65-18 victory over the Tigers.
Eight different times, Skaneateles accepted forfeits, but it did do enough on the mat, too, and the key bout came at 152, when Mike Goetzmann beat Shane Moore in a 15-0 technical fall.
By that point, forfeits had gone to Joey Brillo (126) and Josh Brillo (145), but Matt Goetzmann (132) and James Leubner (138 pounds) had lost with pins, meaning that it was a 12-12 tie.
Mike Goetzmann’s technical fall began the rout, and Newton followed at 160 with a second-period pin over Dan Trammell. Then Lombardi (170), Pat Greenfield (182) and McIntyre (195) accepted forfeits before T.J. Greenfield, wrestling at 285 pounds, pinned Nathan Briggs in just 56 seconds.
That was the last contested Laker victory, with Simmons (99), Christian Daley (106) and Collier (113) also taking forfeits.
After beating M-E, the Lakers would rest until next Wednesday’s meet against Jordan-Elbridge. Then Skaneateles hosts its own dual meet next Saturday, starting at 9:15 a.m., with Auburn, East Syracuse Minoa, Cato-Meridian and Oneida the visiting sides as a prelude to the Onondaga High School League Liberty/Patriot meet the Lakers will host on Jan. 31.
