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Southampton Press
February 3, 2005
League VI Title is Within Reach
By Kerry Monaco
Westhampton Beach wrestling coach Paul Bass came to Rocky Point to win.
At the last second, he decided to forfeit the 135-pound match, which turned out to be a key factor in getting the
win, 31-21, over Rocky Point on Friday night. The 135-pound bout between Jon Gress and Rocky Point’s Jeff Piccolo
was a toss-up. At 140 and 145, Nick Broccoli and Rudy Mistina were both available, but coach Bass was unsure of
the matchups. He was most confident with forfeiting at 135, moving Gress to 140 and putting Broccoli at 145.
After the official was given word of the forfeit, the stands erupted in boos from the Rocky Point fans and amongst
those boos one disgruntled fan yelled out, “I came to see that kid wrestle,” and with a gut response, Bass looked
to the stands and yelled back, “I came to win.”
“[Jason] Herrick and [Charlie] Pendlebury yelled at me about that,” Bass said with a laugh. “And you know what?
I would have yelled at any of my kids for doing that! I wanted to see that match, too. It’s going to be a great
league final match but at that point, I needed to forfeit there.”
The forfeit paid off.
Gress and Broccoli both won decisions and the teams both came out with six points from those three matches and
the Canes went on to win four of the next five bouts to take the match.
After beating Rocky Point (3-2), the Canes (4-0) were just two wins away from an undefeated league title. The squad
was scheduled to host Eastport/South Manor yesterday and will travel to Harborfields tomorrow to wrap up the league
season. The Hurricanes will host the League VI Tournament on February 12.
“We wrestled well as a team against Rocky Point,” Bass said. “Rocky point had the potential to beat us in the first
five matches and not only did we win two of those, but gave up only one pin.”
After the first five bouts, Rocky Point led, 12-6.
Rocky Point opened the bout with a 16-9 decision at 103 and Westhampton Beach’s Scott Lagoumis tied the score at
3-3 with a 9-4 win at 112. Hurricane Kyle Hubbard (119) had a reversal with 50 seconds to go in his bout to edge
his opponent, 2-0, putting Westhampton Beach up, 6-3.
At 125, Andy Mistina got stuck in 1:17, the first pin the Hurricanes have given up this league season and Rocky
Point won a 7-4 decision at 130 to go up, 12-6.
Then came the forfeit. Gress successfully made the move up to 140, winning 7-0.
At 145, Broccoli edged Josh Olson, 12-10, in overtime. Olson led 9-8 heading into the final period. Broccoli started
the third period with an optional start, allowing Olson an escape to start the final two minutes and then with
42 seconds left in the bout, Broccoli took Olson down to tie the score at 10-10, forcing overtime.
In overtime, both wrestlers start on their feet and the first takedown wins it. Broccoli got the bout-winning takedown
27 seconds into overtime. The win cut Rocky Point’s lead to 18-12.
Hurricane James Uresk lost, 8-3, to Larry Lorusso at 152; those three team points would be the final points the
Eagles would score.
“That really saved the match,” Bass said of the minimal damage Rocky Point did at 152. “Lorusso is third in the
county. Uresk was really sick, not just sniffles, really ill. But he went out there, didn’t forfeit the bout and
never quit. That’s how you win league titles. He got put to his back and fought it off. If we had to forfeit there,
they would have moved Lorusso to 160 and we might have lost that one, too.”
Hurricane Steve Kobus beat Ben Sweedish at 160 to bring the team score to 21-15 and Mike Gandolfo’s pin at 171
in 1:52 tied the bout at 21-21, sparking the Hurricanes’ bench and fans.
The result of the match didn’t rest solely on the shoulders of Gandolfo but the pin was huge for the Canes, putting
the team in a good spot with two bouts remaining. Even if Gandolfo got pinned in his bout, the Hurricanes still
could’ve won but would’ve needed pins in both the final two bouts to pull off the victory. Gandolfo knew that and
had been in a high-pressure position once before this season. At the Connetquot Tournament, it came down to Gandolfo
in the final bout of the tournament and he lost the bout, which decided the tournament in favor of Connetquot.
“I didn’t want the same thing that happened at Connetquot to happen again,” Gandolfo said. “I didn’t want to be
that guy. It was a big energy boost for the team after the pin. We had a lot of adrenaline after that.”
John Gillen dominated at 189, 11-2, to put the Hurricanes up, 25-21, and Charlie Pendlebury sealed the deal with
a pin 44 seconds into the heavyweight bout. That bout was the first Pendlebury had wrestled in since the first
week of the league season due to an illness.
Herricks Champions
A day later, the Hurricanes took first place at the Herricks Tournament with 198 points, 73.5 points better than
their closest competitor, Herricks, and Westhampton Beach crowned five champions.
“I don’t think we wrestled as well as we can,” Bass said. “But overall, it was a good day. It was a good test for
the kids who were complaining that they weren’t feeling well, that they were tired from the night before, because
champions overcome adversity. Most of them overcame those feelings once things got started. They may be tired or
not feeling 100 percent at the leagues or the counties but you have to overcome that.”
Andy Mistina (125), Gress (135), Broccoli (140), Gillen (189) and Jason Herrick (275) were all crowned champions
at the tournament.
Tom Comrada (103), Hubbard (119), Julien Lee (130), Gandolfo (171) and Pendlebury (215) were runner-ups in their
respective weights and Paul Dilandro finished third at 125.
Issue Date: Southampton Press 02/03/05
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