Pictured is Oneida’s Matt Fisher in the finals of the CSC League Tournament.
Jesse Puchales of Canastota is shown with a pining combination during the CSC League Tournament.
Also pictured are Nate Walker and Wyatt Albanese.
Mat Madness
By John Albanese
(Canastota, NY – Feb. 2013) It has been a busy week, The Raiders traveled to Sherburne and wrestled their tails off and came away with a huge victory 67-12; the only points given up by the Raiders were two forfeits at 106 and 138.
The match started at 138 and a forfeit by the Raiders. At 145 Anthony Micaroni won a decision 5-4. Next up was freshman Chris Rutherford at 152 with a win 5-2. Senior Matt Rose received a forfeit at 160. Then senior Xavier Johnson won a major decision 13-2.
Raiders Row was now on the mat, Jesse Puchales, Wyatt Albanese and Zach Zupan, 182,195 and 220 respectively, all scoring bonus points for the Raiders with pins.
Jacob Morris received a forfeit at 285. Marshall “the bug” Bruggeman scored bonus points also with a pin at 99 pounds. The Raiders gave up their second forfeit at 106; at 113 Mike Zupan got the Raiders their fifth pin of the evening.
Nate Walker won a decision 6-2 at 120 and at126 seventh grader Ben Marshall received a forfeit. At 132 Conner Russ scored the sixth and final pin of the evening.
One of the Canastota Raiders most decisive wins of the season, making their record 12-4 and a in a tie for second in the league with Adirondack with a 3-1 record. With Adirondack visiting the Raiders for their annual grudge match the next day.
The Adirondack Canastota match is always a highly contested match. The weight drawn was 170 pounds and Xavier Johnson led the way with an 11-0 major decision giving the raiders a 4-0 lead.
Raiders Row was again on the mat and Jesse Puchales did not disappoint scoring the first pin of the evening and increasing the lead to 10-0.
Zach Zupan wrestling up a weight at 195 got the best upper weight that the Wildcats have and Zach scored a tech fall 20-1. With Zupan bumping up a weight, Wyatt Albanese also bumped up to 220 and scored the second pin of the match, furthering the lead to 21-0.
The heavy weights took to the mat and Jacob Morris won a 3-1 decision. Jumping down to the light weights Marshall Bruggeman drew one of the best light weights in the section if not the state and gave up a pin and the wildcats were now on the board 24-6.
The Raiders offered up a forfeit at 106 and Zach Hannan had another highly skilled wrestler from Adirondack, Zach gave up tough decision 6-0 to the sectionals bound wrestler.
Mike Zupan was now up at 120 and scored a 12-10 decision in a tough and hard fought match. The score now at 27-15 and the Raiders next two matches netted them 12 points with pins by Nate Walker and Conner Russ at 126 and 132 giving the Raiders some cushion with the score of 39-15. But the Raiders again had to forfeit at 138 and letting the Wildcats close the gap some at 39-21.
Anthony “MIC” Micaroni took to the mat at 145 and it didn’t look good for the Canastota junior as he was losing 8-4 with seconds remaining in the third period. The resilient Micaroni caught the opposing wrestler in a headlock to score 2 points and 3 near fall points to with the match 9-8 in the last few seconds.
Sophomore Jacob Sherman was up and he faced senior Tyler Spann who is a multiple state qualifier. Sherman did his best to keep the senior at bay but in the end gave up a pin at 152 pounds. In the final match of the night senior Matt Rose battling a shoulder injury all season gave up a major decision 10-0. Making the final score Canastota 42- Adirondack 31 and giving the Raiders sole possession of second place in the CSC division 1.
Next up was the CSC league tournament and not the best showing for the Raiders this year. With the league growing to 19 teams the decision was made that first round losers would be eliminated from the tournament.
The Raiders lost several potential point scorers first round. Marshall Bruggeman drew the 4 seed and lost a tough battle. Mike Zupan fared even worse drawing the 2 seed and was also eliminated. Chris Rutherford lost in the first round after drawing the 3 seed.
Senior Matt Rose Battled with Trevor Simzer in the first round but came up short and was eliminated the first round. Nate Walker and Conner Russ lost matches but battled back to take third. Walker had to wrestle Mike Boyle of Cooperstown for third place the wrestler that he lost to earlier in the day. Walker avenged his earlier loss with a 5-4 decision. Russ had to finish out the day with the third place match against Matt Haddad of Utica Proctor with a hard fought 5-4 decision.
Jake Morris had an off day finishing fourth in a weight class he was expected to dominate. Coming in as the 1 seed Morris was upset by Stephen Davis of Mohawk in the quarter finals, won his next match but gave up another loss in the 3rd place match.
Anthony Micaroni finished the day with two wins and two losses and a fifth place finish at 145. At 220 pound freshman Owen Albanese also had a rather rough day after winning his first match, then losing the next two matches but finishing strong with a pin over Dan Cleveland of Sherburne-Earlville to take fifth place.
Raiders Row took three first place trophies home. Jesse Puchales pinned Brandon Lake of Holland patent in the finals to give the Raiders their first champion of the tournament. Zach Zupan followed suit with a pin over Kasey Foster of Dolgeville.
Last but not least Wyatt Albanese waged a defensive battle with Lane Frost of VVS for a 1-0 victory in which the only point scored was an escape by Albanese in the second period and Albanese riding Frost for the whole third period to maintain the lead and become Canastota’s third champion of the day. When the dust settled the Raiders took third in the tournament even without entering wrestlers at 106,132 and 138 pound weight classes.
Oneida wrestler Matt Fisher made another finals appearance against Tyler Span, which showcased two highly skilled wrestlers with Spann squeaking out a one point win.
John Albanese is a Canastota High School Wrestling Coach and town of Lenox resident.