With Westhampton Beach holding an ever-so-slight 15-13 edge over Amityville last
Friday, a concerned coach Paul Bass looked to the four most reliable guys on his roster, Jon Gress, Nick Broccoli,
James Uresk and Steve Kobus, who all had yet to wrestle. \
He turned to the four and said: “We’re in trouble. You guys have to do your job.
This is why you are ranked in the county.”
The group responded collectively that it was going to be okay.
And it was.
They racked up 19 points in their four bouts to help lift the Hurricanes to a 34-25
victory, which secured sole possession of the League VI title, the second straight undefeated league crown for
the squad. In their six straight league victories, the Hurricanes accumulated an impressive 31 pins while getting
stuck just eight times.
“This feels awesome,” Broccoli, a senior, said after beating Amityville. “After
all the hard work that everyone has put in, finally everything has come together.”
Winning at Amityville sealed the deal, but it was a 36-19 victory over Harborfields
two days earlier that kept the Canes in the running for the title.
Now, the postseason begins. Tomorrow, Saturday, the Hurricanes will compete in the
League VI Tournament at Harborfields High School, where the top three wrestlers at each weight will earn a berth
in the Suffolk County Tournament on February 17 and 18 at Stony Brook University.
Amityville edged Westhampton Beach for the League VI Tournament title last season.
The Hurricanes boasted three league champions, with five others going to the finals last year and then sent 10
to the county tournament, where they had two All-County wrestlers. Broccoli is the only returning league champion,
while Gress and Kobus are returning finalists. “Now it’s a whole new slate,” Bass said. “We have to put all the
good stuff aside, start again and earn it all over.” To find success in the postseason tournaments, it’s going
to be executing the little things that will make the difference—and the wrestlers know it. “We have to work on
fine-tuning some things,” Kobus, a junior, said. “We have to go over our mistakes and keep working hard.”
Victory at Amityville
Since the time seniors Gress, Uresk and Broccoli were sophomores and the three broke into the starting lineup,
the Hurricanes have gone 17-1 in league dual meets. Those three, along with the junior Kobus, were the power behind
the victory against Amityville.
After the first six bouts, the Hurricanes could only manage a two-point edge, 15-13,
and needed their big guns to get the job done, in their four bouts of the remaining seven.
Gress earned a 10-0 decision, scoring four team points, at 140 pounds, Broccoli
pinned at 145 and Uresk earned a 4-1 decision at 152 for three more points in the next three bouts. Amityville
stopped the run with a pin at 160 to bring the score to 28-19 in favor of the Hurricanes.
With three bouts remaining and only nine points separating the teams, it was anyone’s
game. But up next on the mat was the fourth of the veterans, Kobus. Kobus pinned David Fairly with 1:23 to go in
the third period to give the Hurricanes an insurmountable, 34-19 lead.
“I didn’t want to take any risks,” Kobus said. “I wanted to make sure we had enough
to win it.” Amityville won the next two bouts to bring the final to 34-25.
Eighth-grader Cory Hubbard opened the match with a pin 1:30 into the 103-pound bout.
“When Hubbard pinned [Mico] Wong, that was a total surprise,” Bass said. “That was huge. I don’t want to think
what would have happened if he didn’t win that one.”
Amityville forfeited at 112, and the only other match in the first six that the
Hurricanes scored points on was at 125, when Kyle Hubbard edged Tyler Hunter, 2-1. The Warriors accumulated 13
points with wins at 119, 130 and 135.
Win over Harborfields
The dual meet with Harborfields was the final home match of the season for Westhampton Beach and, as tradition
goes, it was senior night. The coach generally talks about how important the seniors have been to the team, the
seniors give their moms flowers and everyone’s heart is light and happy.
It’s also a big focus-buster.
The seniors asked Bass if they could break tradition and save the warm and fuzzies
for after the match. Knowing how important the dual meet was, they just wanted to get out on the mats and wrestle.
And it was a senior who set the tone in the opening bout of the match.
Uresk opened with a 3-2 victory over Jacob Geller to put his team on the board.
“I was pumped up,” Uresk said. “My whole purpose was to set the tone for the match.
I wanted to get us off to a good start.”
Kobus won at 171 and Alex Mazarakis won at 189 to go up, 9-0. Harborfields won the
heavyweight bout for four team points and then pinned at 103 to take a 10-9 edge.
With the momentum swinging to the Tornadoes side of the mat, Hurricane Tom Comorada (112 pounds) swung it back.
Greg Acker dominated Comorada in the first period, but 20 seconds into the second
period, Comorada stuck Acker, followed by an eruption of cheers from the fans.
Scott Lagoumis won at 119, Harborfields took 125 and 130 to bring the score to 21-19,
with Westhampton Beach just barely hanging on, before they blew it open with four straight wins to close out the
match—Paul Dilandro (135), Gress (140), Broccoli (145) and Rudy Mistina (152).
Moments after wrapping up the win and hearing the sentiments from his coach, Gress,
a senior, summed it all up.
“It’s hard to explain what this feels like,” Gress said. “We’ve been through so
much. After all the work, all the hours, we’ve become a family. This is something I’ll never forget. We’ve made
a memory and we were able to capture something special.”
