Once more, Cicero-North Syracuse would serve as the host venue for wrestling’s Section III Dual Meet. Only this time, the stakes were raised.
Now the winners in Division I (large school) and Division II (small schools) would go on and compete in this Saturday’s inaugural State Dual Meet, with winners from most of the 11 sections in New York State facing each other at SRC Arena.
C-NS and Liverpool were both in the Division I (large school) bracket, with the Northstars facing Carthage and the Warriors having to try and topple top seed Fulton. Neither would win, as the Northstars lost 44-30 to the Comets and the Warriors fell 72-12 to the Red Raiders.
The one byproduct of this result was that, in the consolation bracket, C-NS and Liverpool would go head-to-head again, just as they had Jan. 4.
Back then, the Northstars pulled out a 36-34 decision. Here, it was close again – and C-NS won again, this time by a score of 36-31.
In the first half of the match, C-NS had control, claiming five of seven bouts. After a forfeit to Jack McDonald (195 pounds), Troyan Jones (220 pounds) beat John Sturtz 6-1.
Harrison Portorsnok (99 pounds) pinned Hayley Delia at the end of the first period. Dario Cicarelli won a tough 106-pound bout over Corey Okun 5-3 as Jacob Montminy, at 120 pounds, claimed a 6-3 decision over Jacob Ianno.
Liverpool hung in there early with Lochlan Fegley (285 pounds) pinning Brady Ramos in 3:41 and Jeremy Ianno (113 pounds) getting a third-period fall over Dan Sweeney.
Trailing 21-12, the Warriors surged in front with four straight wins starting at 126 pounds, where Charlie Tran handled Eric Salenski 12-1. Steve Pascarella (132 pounds) blanked Shane MacDonald 6-0 as Evan Burns (138 pounds) fought off Adam Brown 4-1 and Kenny Haugabook (145) got a second-period pin over Isiah Wahdan.
C-NS now trailed 28-21, but then got third-period pins by Michael Livesay (152 pounds) over Anthony Piscatelli and Anthony Desimone (160 pounds) over Zach Allen. Ben Michalowski, at 160 pounds, kept Liverpool alive by winning a 9-7 thriller over Robert Salvett.
So it all came down to the 170-pound finale between the Northstars’ Julian Zavaglia and the Warriors’ Ron Cyr. It went all six minutes, in doubt until the end, but Zavaglia pulled it out 5-3.
Before this, C-NS and Liverpool each won league matches last Wednesday night, with the Northstars topping Baldwinsville 47-31 and the Warriors handling the combined Syracuse City team 76-12.
Against B’ville, C-NS got going when Salvett claimed a forfeit and Zavaglia pinned Cameron Salce in the second period before the Bees claimed the next three bouts, including McDonald falling to Luke Eberl 5-3.
The Northstars went back in front when Portorsnok pinned Aiden Cali in 88 seconds and Cicarelli took just 47 seconds to pin Max Naples. An exchange followed with Nathan Osborne (120) claiming an 8-7 thriller over Zach Hahn, along with MacDonald pinning Cole Accordino in the second period.
Still, C-NS was clinging to a 33-31 edge when it swept the last three bouts on the card. Wahdan shut out Jon Formoza 5-0 before Livesay clinched the team victory, pinning John Eustice in 3:42 as Desimone got a 15-0 technical fall over Dennis Kral.
In Liverpool’s match with Syracuse, while it benefited from five forfeits, it still won eight times on the mat. Tran, Allen, Michalowski, Cyr, Okun, Jeremiah Paulson (132 and John Sturtz (220) each earned pins as Pascarella gained a 12-1 decision over Jose Arocho.
Then the Warriors got an 89-0 win over Poland Thursday night. Most of the bouts were forfeits, but Pascarella, Cyr, Haugabook, Fegley and Jeremy Ianno all got pins in 79 seconds or less to go with Michalowski’s technical fall over Barrett Sheppard.
