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Home Schedule Team Record Picture Gallery News Articles Middle School Related Links Sponsors Alumni   Contact Coach Bass Home: 653-8146 Office: 288-3800 x323	Southampton Press January 11, 2007 Defense of Title Begins with Pair of Victories This week brings start of run with ‘the big boys’ Just call it the seven-step program to a third-straight title. Moments before the first match of the league season was to get underway, the Westhampton Beach wrestling team huddled for a premeet talk. And just before the team broke for the mat, in unison the team shouted, “Step one.” The first step toward the team’s third con-VI title came in the secutive League form of a 43-21 home win over Miller Place on January 3, and the team then took step-two on Friday night with a 58-13 road victory over Bayport/Blue Point. “We’re just taking it one match at a time. Every time we go out it’s a new step,” senior Kyle Hubbard said. “All seven [league dual meets], that’s our goal.” Moving onto the third through seventh steps signaled the beginning of what head coach Paul Bass called “the big boys.” Those “big boys” are the teams that have the potential to put a blemish on the two-season undefeated mark of the Hurricanes. Remaining on the schedule for the Hurricanes was a road trip to Shoreham/Wading River (0-2) last night, a meeting at home with Rocky Point (2-0) on Wednesday, January 17, a road match with Harborfields (2-0) on Friday, January 19, a home meet with Amityville (0-2) on January 26 and the season finale at Mount Sinai (1-1) on February 2. The last time the Hurricanes wrestled at Shoreham/Wading River was in 2004 in the final meet of the regular season, and the Wildcats pulled out the victory to win the league title in a battle of two unbeaten squads. Miller Place, along with Bayport/Blue Point, are considered the two weakest teams in the league, but that’s only because the league is so strong. While Westhampton Beach seemed to easily defeat the Panthers, two days later, the Miller Place team stunned Shoreham/ Wading River with a 31-30 victory. “We didn’t want to overlook them,” senior Steve Kobus said of Miller Place. “We didn’t want to come in too confident, thinking we were going to win.” Westhampton Beach senior Kyle Hubbard opened the match with a pin at 140 pounds followed by Paul Dilandro’s 7-1 decision for a 9-0 Westhampton Beach lead. Mike Miller and Rich Mailand lost back-to-back matches at 152 and 160 to make it a 9-6 Hurricanes lead. The Hurricanes quickly padded their lead to 30-10 in a five-match span. Alex Mazarakis pinned at 171, Steve Kobus won at 189, Conner Bass pinned at 96 pounds and Miller Place forfeited the 103-pound match. Hurricane Jimmy Zambik lost at heavyweight, and the Hurricanes held a 20-point advantage. Cory Hubbard won a decision at 112 pounds, and then Dennis Hayes’s 13-1 major decision at 119 gave the Hurricanes an insurmountable 37-10 advantage. Miller Place racked up 11 points between the 125 and 130 matches when Adam Coleman recorded a technical takedown over Scott Lagoumis and Mike Young pinned Tom Comorada. Hurricane Joe Santaly-Graf pinned in the final bout of the night at 135 for a 43-21 Westhampton Beach win. During its trip to Bayport/Blue Point, Westhampton Beach won all but two of the matches wrestled and forfeited at 103 points to easily walk away with the 58-13 win. KERRY MONACO Conner Bass (96), Ethan Mitchell (125), Scott Lagoumis (130), John Prudenti (140), Mike Miller (152), Mazarakis (171) and Kobus (189) all pinned their opponents. Winning decisions were Cory Hubbard (112), Hayes (119) and Dilandro (145). Bayport/Blue Point forfeited the heavyweight match. WHB Dual Meet Tournament After rolling off 12 straight dual meet wins in a row dating to a year ago, Westhampton Beach found itself on the losing side when its streak of 12 straight wins came to an end in the finals of its own tournament when it lost to Deer Park, 28-21, on Saturday. Westhampton Beach reached the finals with a 34-11 win over Bellport and a 45-9 pounding of Newfield in the opening round. “I think losing might have been a good thing for us,” Bass said. “The last time we lost was at our tournament last year to Sayville in the finals. Maybe we needed this, to feel how losing feels. Sometimes, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and not just for the kids but for me too. I hate to lose, and the kids hate it too so it makes you work harder.” Failure to take full advantage of their strengths over Deer Park’s weaknesses is what made the difference. In five of the matches that Westhampton Beach won, just two were pins with the other three only scoring three team points each. “Where they were weak, we didn’t get the pin points,” Bass said. Seniors Mike Miller (152), Kobus (189), Zambik (215) were all three-match winners at the tournament, while John Prudenti (140) won both of the matches he wrestled in, including his match in the finals with Deer Park. Hubbard (135) and Alex Mazarakis (171) both won two of three bouts. And while Mitchell, a junior, didn’t win a match at the tournament, he successfully matched the task given to him by his coach to avoid a pin. Mitchell hit the mat for the 125-pound bout in the finals with Deer Park, facing the second-ranked wrestler in the county at that weight, Joe Nunez. Mitchell escaped both getting pinned and a technical takedown, losing 15-6, which earned Deer Park four points rather than five or six. Westhampton Beach’s Joe Santaly-Graf recorded a pin in his match in the League VI opener against Miller Place on January 3. Westhampton Beach’s Conner Bass, top, pinned his opponent in his team’s win over Miller Place in the League VI opener on January 3. Bass also recorded a pin in the win over Bayport/Blue Point on January 5. KERRY MONACO
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