The two young and inexperienced squads wrestled just five matches and thanks to four pins from the Hillbillies they came out on top 48-10 for a Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 1 victory.

“There’s always been a healthy competition,” F/SC/F/B head coach Joe Santilli said about the matchup. “I know a lot of the wrestlers for both teams have grown up wrestling in the same rec program that we used to have at Fredonia. You know the kids on both teams, they pretty much grew up together and competed together and now they compete against each other.”

In the first match of the night F/SC/F/B’s Dawson Russo took on Dunkirk’s Dominick Mangus in the 172-pound weight class. Russo made quick work of Mangus, earning the Hillbillies first pin of the night with 34 seconds left in the first period to go up 6-0.

After Russo’s pin came the closest tilt of the night as Dunkirk’s Jimmy Bautista took on F/SC/F/B’s Jacob Lemke in the 160-pound weight class. Bautista led most of the way and secured several of his points getting behind Lemke for takedowns. Bautista took key points at both the end of the second and third periods as he defeated Lemke 14-6 for Dunkirk’s only victory not decided by forfeit.

OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms Dunkirk’s Jimmy Bautista, in maroon, works on top of Fredonia/Silver Creek/Forestville/Brocton’s Jacob Lemke during Wednesday’s Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 1 wrestling match at Dunkirk High School.

Prior to the match, an exhibition was played between the Marauders’ Jordin Bautista and Hillbillies’ Ian Woods at the 160-pound class. Brothers Jordin and Jimmy Bautista both wrestle at the same weight class so they had a wrestle-off to determine who would get to compete in the match and who was in the exhibition. Jordin didn’t come out on top against his brother, but he was able to defeat Ian Woods 8-4 prior to the match.

“Those two guys, the Bautista brothers are the same weight and they’re two workhorses,” said Dunkirk head coach Isaiah Rashad. “It’s tough watching them wrestle-off when they’re the two hardest workers in the wrestling room. Jordin had a good match today and Jimmy had a good match today.”

After Dunkirk’s lone victory came a series of F/SC/F/B pins, starting with Jacob Szumigala defeating Conner Jakubowicz in a hard-fought battle at the 215-pound weight class. Szumigala controlled the majority of the match before picking up the pinfall.

“Conner wrestled tough,” added Rashad. “It’s his first year wrestling, he’s never wrestled before. I’m really happy to see him at where he’s at, he is going to be tough if he sticks with it.”

At the 285-pound class Dominick Collazo secured another pin for the ‘Billies as he took down Jonathan Ortiz.

OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms Fredonia/Silver Creek/Forestville/Brocton’s Dominick Collazo pins Dunkirk’s Jonathan Ortiz during the 285-pound bout Wednesday at Dunkirk High School.

Between the final two wrestled matches were several forfeits with one going to Dunkirk and four going to F/SC/F/B.

“Unfortunately with the numbers being down for most teams there are a lot of forfeits,” added Santilli. “So you’re giving up six points and if you can’t fill the line — even if you have three forfeits that’s potentially a 36-point swing. That’s a lot of points to overcome, so you’ve got to get the pins when you can. I know we’re always working to go off transition of takedowns or breakdowns and if there is ever a time you needed pins it’s with short lineups.”

The final wrestled match of the evening was between F/SC/F/B’s Jacob Myers and Dunkirk’s Michael Hanlon at 145 pounds and Myers was able to secure the pin as the Hillbillies took the 48-10 victory.