CENTRAL NEW YORK – Count December as among the best months in the history of the Cicero-North Syracuse wrestling program.
From a landmark win over Fulton to its first-ever victory in its own Andersen Tournament to fending off a challenge from archrival Liverpool, the Northstars kept adding to its list of accomplishments.
And the month was capped on Dec. 28-29 when C-NS went to SUNY-Oswego and beat 23 other teams to capture the Kenneth Haines Memorial Tournament.
All told, the Northstars got 183 points, just enough to edge runner-up Camden, who had 180.5 points, largely because it put five wrestlers into the championship round, even if only one of them prevailed.
At 215 pounds, Kamdin Bembry made his way to the semifinals, where he pinned Central Square’s Rocky Files with 42 seconds left in their bout. Then, in the final, Bembry kept Camden’s Josh Salsman off the scoreboard in a 9-0 shutout. Bembry had pins in three of his four bouts.
Anthony Ciciarelli nearly won at 118 pounds, taking a 5-4 defeat to Fulton’s Brady Niver in the title bout as, at 102 pounds, Kevin Mossow blanked Andrew Juliano (Holland Patent) 6-0 in the semifinals before a 7-0 loss to Fulton’s Frederick Pagan in the finals.
Up at 172 pounds, Jack Sherbourne found himself in a close final against Holland Patent’s Jordan Koenig where he lost, 7-4, after a 97-second pin of Canton’s Charlie Rossner in the semifinals.
Joe Kozubowski’s 10-6 win over Anthony Daublewicz (Fayetteville-Manlius) got him in the 285-pound final, where he took an injury default against New Hartford’s Chris Belmonte.
Elsewhere, Kennedy Thomas finished fourth at 152 pounds with a 3-2 record, while Javone Dawkins was sixth at 110 pounds as he went 3-3. Ciciarelli, Kozubowski and Mossow each went 2-1 as Sean Aldrich (138 pounds) and Drew Baker (126 pounds) each had 3-2 marks.
Then, on Dec. 30, it was Liverpool’s turn to resume action, which it did by gaining 147.5 points at the Cooperstown Invitational to beat everyone in a 14-team field except Middletown, who won with 175 points.
Owen Atchie gave the Warriors a title at 172 in a thrilling title bout against Mount Markham’s Brad Burke, with Atchie doing just enough to edge Burke 8-7 and improve to 21-2 on the season.
Pierce Goodave dropped the final at 118 to Derek Carey (Lansingburgh) 9-0 as Connor Kral lost his title bout at 152 to Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s Charlie Foster and Lucas Smith, in the 132-pound final, was pinned by South Jefferson-Sandy Creek star Chase Lawton.
Four other Liverpool wrestlers had third-place finishes. At 102, Paolo Munetz beat Connor Carpenter (South Lewis) 14-7 in his consolation bracket final as Carson Rice did the same at 118, edging Albany CBA’s Louis Frattarola 3-2.
With a pin over Joe Dare in 2:12, Matthews Bonato-Borges took third at 126 pounds as Jayce Bliss got third at 189 pounds with his own second-period pin over Lansingburgh’s Eric Loya.
Aiden Adams-Bovenzi (110 pounds) and Tyler Vivacqua (145 pounds) each had fourth-place efforts, with Samir Amiri fifth at 118, a finish equaled by Anthony Kelly at 160 and Edward Ogindo at 189, Ogindo beating teammate Joe Piscitelli 5-2 for that spot.
Liverpool went from here to defeating West Genesee 45-26 Wednesday night, rallying to win the last four bouts after it trailed 26-24.
Kral’s pin of Elliot Petrie began the comeback. Dante Mallozzi (160) edged Jacob Severson 3-1, with Atchie pinning Raul Colon in 48 seconds and Bliss pinning Joe Dunn in the second period. David Sullivan, in the 215-pound opener, pinned Santino Sanford.
C-NS, meanwhile, routed Fayetteville-Manlius 60-9, dropping the first two bouts but winning everything else, including pins by Ciciarelli, Thomas, Aldrich, Jonah Geller (145), Kevin Mossow (110) and Kasey Kalfass (102 pounds).
