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Hillbillies beat Thunderbirds 49-26 on Senior Night in Fredonia

Taking care of business

Fredonia’s David Ball (right) grapples with Chautauqua Lake’s Hunter Harris during the 120-pound contest during Wednesday’s wrestling match at Fredonia High School. OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms.

FREDONIA – After the first six matches of Wednesday’s Section VI CCAA Division 1 duals meet at Fredonia High School, between the Fredonia Hillibillies and the Chautauqua Lake-Westfield-Panama-Clymer Thunderbirds (2-2), the Thunderbirds held a 26-3 lead over the Hillbillies. Being the Hillbillies Senior Night, the home team was not going to go down without a fight. Fredonia rallied off nine wins – including three forfeits – to defeat the visiting Thunderbirds 49-26.

“I’m super pleased for the senior crew,” stated Fredonia head coach Joe Santilli said about Wednesday’s comeback win on Senior Night. “I knew that the bottom half of their line is real tough. They’ve got a real nice group there, no disrespect to the upper half, but that’s where our strength is. We knew that if we could battle through that bottom half – mitigate any damage – keep it to decisions, not give up the pin and good things would happen.”

Before the match started Fredonia honored its 12 seniors and acknowledged Thunderbirds senior Brendon Rowe. The 12 Fredonia seniors honored were Captain Cole Golembieski of Silver Creek; Morgan Schroeder, Dakota Planty and Kyara Caldwell of Brocton; and Jonny Skrok, Cedric Howard, Jack Storm, Captain Antonio Pagan, Captain Jake Skinner, Captain Alex Christy, Captain Yaniel Acevedo and Captain Dalton Gardner. All 12 Fredonia seniors served as Captains in Wednesday’s match.

The Thunderbirds came out the gates blazing, winning the first two matches by pinfall. Martin Ohlsson secured the first match at 1:15 pinning Sebastian Puglisi, then Trent Burchanowski pinned Lucas Hoffman in the first 20 seconds of the second period, and gave the Thunderbirds a 12-0 lead.

Fredonia secured a huge win in the third match at the 120lb class where David Ball came out on top with a 5-3 decision over Hunter Harris. After the first two periods, Ball had a narrow 2-0 lead, but in the third period both Ball and Harris secured three points in a very exciting match.

Fredonia’s Sebastian Puglisi (bottom) fights off Chautauqua Lake’s Martin Ohlsson during the 106-pound contest during Wednesday’s wrestling match in Fredonia. OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms.

The Thunderbirds responded to Ball’s huge win with three consecutive victories. Bradley Smith pinned Jetzial Baez Morales, then Brendon Rowe and Brendon Ramsey secured Major Decisions over Antonio Pagan and Dakota Planty, respectively.

“Realistically that’s been our starts all year,” Thunderbirds’ Head Coach Brad Rowe stated about getting large leads to start meets. “Our lightweights are hammers and they’re just a bunch of tough kids. We do not have a lot of losses down there. The [David] Ball kid winning that one at 99lbs was huge, I don’t think he’s ever beat him [Joslyn] in the past. We’re just very young up top and we’ve got to start to get these kids turned over. The bigger guys are young.”

Fredonia started to turn the tides at 145lbs when Hunter Larson earned a Major Decision over John Watson, 13-3. Bryson LeGrano and Golembieski followed Larson with pins to get Fredonia back in the match.

One of the most entertaining matches of the night came at 170lbs when Fredonia’s Jack Storm took on Zachary Wolcott. After the first two periods, Storm led 4-1 and secured the only two points of the second period. Storm appeared to be in control of the match until the third period when Wolcott started to rally back. Coming right down to the wire, Storm got what looked like would be the decisive point at 5-3, but Wolcott got a late two points in the last 30 seconds.

Tied at 5-5 with little time remaining, Coach Santilli yelled to Storm that he led 5-3 and he better get another point, with five seconds left Storm got his chance. After a whistle, Storm was put on bottom and was able to escape out of a hold by Wolcott with two seconds remaining and earned the decisive sixth point and sent the Fredonia fans into a frenzy.

Fredonia’s Jack Storm (top) battles with Chautauqua Lake’s Zachary Wolcott during Wednesday’s match. OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms.

“Zach Walcott is a strong young man, tough wrestler and I knew that match was going to be a toss up there,” Coach Santilli said about the match at 170lbs. “I got a little nervous with Jack there, thought he was winning the match… then I wasn’t sure if he was going to get on bottom when it was tied. He found a way with about one or two seconds left. I’m happy for him, he’s a senior and hoped to get a match, he got a match alright.”

The Storm-Wolcott match was the last close match of the night, as the remaining bouts were a pin by Matt Lotter against Gavin Segovia at 1:30 and Mike Ball won a huge match over Jordan Joslyn by a 4-1 decision.

“I’m real impressed with Mike Ball’s win there at 99lbs,” Stated Coach Santilli. “Jordan Joslyn is a super tough young man and teched Mike at the Official’s Tournament in December, so that was a big turnaround.”

Ceric Kristan, Alex Kristy and Jake Skinner all earned forfeit victories.

Fredonia stays undefeated in league play and will look to try and win the league next week at Falconer/Cassadaga Valley on Wednesday.

“It’s been a while since we’ve been able to battle for the league championship at the end of the year, because we’re usually looking at third and fourth. Next Wednesday we’ll roll the dice and see what happens,” Coach Santilli said about next week.

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