Now both the Cazenovia and Chittenango wrestling teams find themselves in the middle of their respective OHSL Liberty division schedules, doing their best to keep up with various league foes.
For the Lakers, that meant hosting Phoenix last Wednesday night, the program coached by local legend Gene Mills. And Cazenovia had plenty of successful moments, even if it lost the team match 46-27 to the Firebirds.
Following a forfeit to Luke Rodriguez at 106 points, Luca Ferreira got the first mat win for the Lakers at 120 pounds in a classic battle with Jeff Cooper, going beyond overtime before Ferreira pulled it out 13-11.
Gerald Viehauer won a 132-pound battle over Ethan Bruno 7-5, with the Lakers winning twice more late in the meet. Sam DeLeon, at 160 pounds, nearly got a shutout in a 7-1 win over Jadan Bruno, followed by Casey Cunningham (170 pounds) pinning Ayden Slack in 3:46.
Kevin Valentine’s effort at 152 pounds merited some praise, too, as he took Phoenix’s Colton Winks to the wire, only to end up on the wrong end of a 12-11 decision.
A night earlier, Chittenango took on East Syracuse Minoa, where it lost, 60-21, to the Spartans as it only won two bouts on the mat.
Joe Mariani had one of them, at 138 pounds, claiming a 7-3 decision over Michael O’Brien as Devin Myers, at 160 pounds, pinned Nick Modlewski near the midway point of the second period.
Oliver Denney (113 pounds) and Blayde DeBlieux (99 pounds) both claimed forfeits, while ESM won every other bout with either a pin or forfeit.
Two nights later, in the league opener against Marcellus, the Bears fell 54-21 to the Mustangs, who won seven of the first eight bouts on the card, the lone exception Myers’ tough 7-5 decision over Trevor Widrick.
DeBlieux pinned Gavin Ciota early in the third period for six points. Just before Will Jackson (126 pounds) claimed a forfeit, Peyton Denney, at 120, emerged from a tough bout with Ryan Moses to prevail 10-9.
Two other bouts were close decisions, too, and though John Spencer (220 pounds) lost, 3-1, to Tom Kinsella, Mariani closed the night by shutting out Quinten Weaver 3-0.
Cazenovia took part in Saturday’s Sara B. Allen Duals at Groton and would have matches this week against Homer Tuesday and at Canastota Thursday night. Chittenango would have its own match with Phoenix after going to Central Square for last Saturday’s Brett Dixon Memorial Duals.
