All sorts of glory was within the reach of the Liverpool wrestling team, starting with last week’s showdown with Baldwinsville for CNY Counties League superiority and continuing with Saturday’s appearance at Cicero-North Syracuse for the Section III Dual Meet.
It began with the trip to Baker High School Gym, where the Warriors battled B’ville with the league title at stake, and the outcome was in doubt until the final bout, but the Warriors still suffered a 37-28 defeat.
They started at 132 pounds, trading victories in each of the first eight bouts – Liverpool getting one, B’ville answering. Dylan Wallace prevailed, 15-6, over Tyler Patrick in the opener, with Audey Ashkar (145 pounds) getting a 16-0 technical fall over Tom Fuzia and Will Ronan (160 pounds) pulling out a 5-4 decision over Spencer Woods.
The Bees got wins, too, but all by decisions, Liverpool’s wrestlers hanging on all six minutes. Jerry Nash (138 pounds) fell to Jeremy Pond 6-2, with Zach Curcie (152 pounds) taking a 9-3 loss to David Rush and Jack Ragonese (170 pounds) staying close in an 8-3 defeat to Thor Sutphen.
But after Jalen Barron used an overtime takedown to beat Steve Petrelli 3-1 at 182 pounds, the Bees won the next three bouts in the highest weight classes, two of them by pin, to go up 25-15. Now, though, Liverpool staged its own comeback, earning a forfeit at 99 pounds and having Christian Bradshaw (106 pounds) shutting out Jacob Cavallo 8-0 tied it again, 25-25.
Three bouts remained, and after a pin by B’ville’s Zach Hahn pin at 113 pounds, Sean Nadeau, at 120 pounds, pulled out a 1-0 overtime decision over Jake Naples, cutting Liverpool’s deficit to 31-28. But in the 126-pound finale, Kevin Lewis pinned Ryan Blowers 20 seconds into the second period to clinch it for the Bees.
Now it was on to the Dual Meet, where Liverpool, as the no. 7 seed, drew no. 10 seed Vernon-Verona-Sherrill in the opening round and pulled through it by winning the last two bouts on the card to top the Red Devils 37-30.
Early on, VVS won four in a row after Nash pinned Hunter Rascoe in 90 seconds, but Wallace, Curcie, Ronan and Barron all lost by four points or less, keeping it close so that Liverpool could retake the lead when Ragonese beat Drew Rook 2-0, Nick Thomas (195 pounds) claimed a forfeit and Zach Eason (220 pounds) pinned Blair Prentice early in the third period.
Further support came when Bradshaw routed Kyle Burback 13-2 and Steve Pascarella (106 pounds) pinned Gabe Lamach in 42 seconds. Still, with two bouts left, VVS was within one, 31-30, but then Nadeau shut out Ian O’Neil 7-0 and Ashkar clinched the victory by stopping Austin Vanderhoof 6-1.
This led Liverpool to the quarterfinals against no. 2 seed Adirondack, and it went back and forth here, too, before the Wildcats subdued the Warriors 41-27.
Of the first nine bouts, Liverpool won five of them, starting with Ronan topping Matt Tanner 6-3. Barron pinned Ben Gerling at the end of the second period as Thomas topped Kevin Albert 8-2. After Eason won an 11-7 thriller over Travis Hastwell, Bradshaw pinned Spencer Hamilton in 1:48, and Liverpool had a 21-19 lead.
At that moment, though, Adirondack got back-to-back falls in less than a minute from Kevin Spann (106) and Sean Banks (113), putting the Wildcats ahead for good, and clinched it when Stone Lutz pinned Evan Burns in 1:07 in their 126-pound bout.
Still, Ashkar provided a major highlight when he won a tense 3-2 match over Adirondack star Derek Spann, who entered the match with a 36-0 record this season and is a two-time state Division II runner-up with nearly 200 wins to his credit. Nadeau won, too, edging Brandon Gaylord 5-4.
As it turned out, Adirondack would win the sectional Dual Meet for the first time in its history, routing Camden 54-24 in the semifinals and, in the championship round, held off Fulton by a score of 35-32.
C-NS, while hosting the Dual Meet, had no active part in it, but had wrestled last Wednesday night against visiting West Genesee and prevailed there, rolling to a 50-26 victory over the Wildcats.
The Northstars won in each of the five lightest weight classes, with only Jacob Montminy (106) taking a forfeit. Nathan Osborne (113) pinned Tanner Buza in 69 seconds, with Travis Harrington (120) needing just 1:26 to pin Charlie Tran as Dario Cicarelli (99) pinned Patrick Ivery midway through the third period and Joe Mayers (120) got a 23-6 technical fall over Cole Wade.
Nick Gazzillo had C-NS’s other fall, at 138, finishing off Devin Earl in 2:47. It took overtime for Anthony Desimone (145) to beat Mike Linton 9-7, while Landry Rogers (170) handled Griffin Sasso 11-4 and Justin Martin (195) had a 10-3 victory over Randell Ouimet. Chris St. Denny (220) lost a tight 7-6 battle to WG’s Zach Valerino.
