Cazenovia — Though a full week remained before Christmas, the Skaneateles wrestling team already was well on its way to holding the Onondaga High School League Liberty division regular-season championship.
With a win over Marcellus already in the ledger, Skaneateles made the trip to Buckley Gym Thursday night and earned another important league victory, rallying to win the Laker duel by a 54-22 margin.
That it turned into such a comfortable win seemed unlikely through five bouts, since Cazenovia had won four of them and possessed a 16-6 lead.
Christian Daley (120 pounds), Nevan Rourke (126 pounds) and Dan O’Connell (132 pounds) all took defeats, with only Rourke getting close as he dropped an 11-9 decision to Zack Maxwell.
It was Joey Brillo, at 138 pounds, getting Skaneateles on the board with a pin over Matt McLaughlin eight seconds into the third period, but it was followed by Matt Goetzmann (145 pounds) falling to Paul McLaughlin 7-1.
When it went to 152 pounds, though, Skaneateles took over, with Mike Goetzmann starting a surge of four straight Skaneateles wins when he pinned Nick Monroe midway through the second period.
Two more pins followed, Lucas Sherman (160 pounds) finishing off Dominick King in 3:46 and Ian Frackleton (170 pounds) getting his fall over Christian Winkler with 31 seconds left in their bout before Pat Greenfield took a forfeit at 182 pounds.
Cazenovia’s Kevin Frega broke up the Skaneateles surge at 195 pounds by pinning Josh O’Hara in the first period, but the visitors tacked on two more forfeits, to T.J. Greenfield (285 pounds) and Hannah Drake (113 pounds) as J.W. Simmons, at 106 pounds, pinned Cole Basic at the end of the first period.
Now Skaneateles would get to rest for nearly two weeks, enjoying the holidays, until returning to action Dec. 30 during the Lewis County Duals at Copenhagen.
