Boys’ Latin coach Drew Haugh took advantage of some lineup changes and received some momentum-swinging efforts from his Lakers’ wrestlers to emerge with a 54-21 dual meet victory over Archbishop Spalding.
The Lakers led, 6-0, after a first-period pin by Chris Floccare (160), after which the Cavaliers got a technical fall and a pin, respectively, from Kavonte Smith (171) and Joe Brennan (189) to go up 11-6.
Next up, however, was the Lakers’ 215-pound Ryan Fish, fresh off of an ACL reconstruction as a result of an injury suffered during football season.
Fish took only 14 seconds to headlock and then pin his Cavaliers’ rival, giving the Lakers a lead of 12-11.
In the next bout, first-year wrestler Aaron Verardi bumped up from his 207 pound weigh-in to wrestle the Cavaliers’ 254-pound Beau Haworth, a tall, rangy opponent, at 285 pounds.
“Haworth stands about 6-foot-9 while Verardi’s height is about 5-10,” Haugh said. “It truly looked like David vs. Goliath out there. Both wrestlers jockeyed for position and had opportunities to put each other away.”
But it was Verardi who came out of their last bear-hug scramble to fall on his much larger opponent and to put him away at 4:30 of the third period to stretch the Lakers’ lead to 18-11.
From that point on, the Lakers won seven of the next eight bouts for a lead of 54-17 with one match left, including pins by Michael Floccare (125), Niko Manzari (130), Jon Frederick (135) and Michael Vardoulakis (145), with Frederick’s fall coming in only 51 seconds.
The run also included overtime decisions by Alex Malinowski (103) and Skip Newberger (140), and a forfeit to Pierce Haugh (119).
Malinowski overcame a five point deficit with less than 20 seconds to go by executing his patented split-cradle to send the match into overtime. There, he secured a slick takedown with 17 seconds left in the first extra session to win, 8-6.
Similarly, Newberger scored an overtime, 7-5, victory on a takedown.
The Cavaliers’ Jordan Cohill (152) blanked his opponent, 8-0, to close out the match.
Boys’ Latin 54 Spalding 21
160 Chris Floccare(BL) p. Paul Newman(SP) 1:54
171 Kavonte Smith(SP) tf. Dru Keyser(BL) 18-3 5:02
189 Joe Brennan(SP) p. Mitchell Horning(BL) 2:45
215 Ryan Fish(BL) P. Jack Duckett(SP) :14
285 Aaron Verardi(BL) p. Beau Haworth(SP) 4:30
103 Alex Malinowski(BL) dec. Cole Gallagher 8-6 OT
112 Brady Gaynor(SP) wbf.
119 Pierce Haugh(BL) wbf.
125 Michael Floccare(BL) p. Nathan Sewell(SP) 3:31
130 Niko Manzari(BL) p. Michael Cox(SP) 3:21
135 Jon Frederick(BL) p. Brandon Piccirilli(SP) :51
140 Skip Newberger (BL) dec. Jeff Yeatman(SP) 7-5 OT
145 MIchael Vardoulakis(BL) p. Mike Kane(SP) 5:08
152 Jordan Cohill(SP) md. Michael Middleton(BL) 8-0
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