Wildcats get going to take meet over Lake Park
Four or five matches into Thursday's dual between Neuqua Valley and Lake Park, and with his squad trailing 19-5 to the host Lancers, Wildcats coach Mick Ruettiger turned to his bench and said "you guys better get it going."
Neuqua Valley did just that, reeling off nine consecutive wins to close out a 48-18 Wildcats' victory in the Upstate Eight Conference dual in Roselle after the Lancers were penalized a team point.
"It's not a matter of winning or losing matches -- it's how intense we are and where the energy level is, right from the start," Ruettiger said. "This is the time of year where we have to start peaking."
The Wildcats (13-4) earned an 8-3 edge in matches wrestled, forfeiting at 112 pounds. The Lancers (20-4) gave up forfeit points at 152 and 171 pounds.
"I thought we had momentum going in, and I'm proud of the kids," said Lancers coach Todd Raymond. "Some of our kids were out-matched, but they wrestled tough."
The Wildcats' Alex Zozulia opened the dual with a technical fall at 189, but Lake Park won the next four matches, starting with Mike Dziedzic's major decision at 215 pounds over Patrick St. Clair.
Lancers heavyweight John Gesse followed with a pin of John Grogan, and Joe Rovituso won a 6-3 decision at 103 over the Wildcats' Jackson Robinson.
"Gesse wrestled a great match. He's a first-year kid," Raymond said. "And (Rovituso) did a nice job. He didn't make any mistakes and stayed in control."
The Wildcats' forfeit at 112 came next, but that's when they fired up the steamroller heading into their middle weights.
"Everyone knows that their middle weights are stacked," Dziedzic said. "I thought we went toe-to-toe with them, but the score doesn't show that."
Neuqua Valley's Matt Cavallaris won by pin at 119, before teammate Nick Saiz used a pair of reversals and 2 back points to win a 7-5 decision Marco Sanchez at 125 pounds.
"Nick's just getting his feet under him on the mat, he had a late start on the varsity level, but he wrestles tough," Ruettiger said.
Adam Stine's third-period reversal gave him control of an eventual 4-1 win at 130, Matt Walters won by major decision at 135, and Brian Epp won by pin at 140 pounds.
The match at 145 pitted Neuqua's Nick Proctor against previously unbeaten Dan Kowalski. Proctor earned two takedowns to Kowalski's third-period reversal in winning the 5-2 decision.
"I felt him out in the first period, and by the second period I knew what he was doing," Proctor said. "Sometimes against a good guy, it'll take a while. But in that match, I just went in there and tried to take control."
The night's final match saw Neuqua's Mike Zozulia pin Kevin Vitols at 160, and one final Lancers forfeit provided the final margin.
"Neuqua's a better team," Raymond said. "But you know what? Our guys didn't back down out there against the fourth-ranked team in the state. I'm proud of them."