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| By GERRY deSIMAS, JR., Special to The Herald |
| MIDDLETOWN – When Middletown senior Alex Drew pinned Berlin’s Andrew Soneson in the second-to-last match at 119 pounds, the Blue Dragon bench and the partisan home crowd at Middletown High erupted in celebration. Drew’s pin in 24 seconds clinched the second-ever win for Middletown over perennial league champion Berlin Thursday night, 35-34. But the seeds of this victory were sown throughout this hard-fought Northwest Conference battle as the defending Class L champion Dragons (6-1, 2-0 NWC) earned crucial points that set up Drew’s match-winning pin. At 152 pounds, Middletown’s Ronnie Brown earned a 9-1 victory over Jack Banks. The key was a takedown with about a minute left in the third period that gave Brown an eight-point lead. Winning by eight points is worth four team points. Winning by seven is worth just three. At 145, Berlin’s Ethan Berube dominated freshman Vinny Quiniliano but couldn’t pin him in a 14-3 victory. The Redcoats earned just four points instead of six for a pin. That helped set up Drew, who took the mat with Middletown holding a 29-28 lead. Earlier in the day, Fong told Drew that he would likely have to pin for the Dragons to win. “It’s pressure but you do what you have to do,” Drew said. “I was going for whatever (move) presented itself.” He caught Soneson in a cradle to earn the pin and clinch the match. “They’re a great program,” Middletown coach Mark Fongsaid of Berlin, which has won 20 of the last 22 league titles. “It’s always satisfying to beat them.” It was a frustrating defeat for the Redcoats (6-3, 1-1 NWC) but one loss doesn’t automatically eliminate anyone in the competitive Northwest Conference. For the last two years, there have been multiple champions in the league. A year ago, Berlin shared the title with Farmington and Middletown while in 2006, the Dragons shared the title with Plainville. Each year, the championship teams had one loss. “For the most part, we wrestled tough,” Berlin coach Dave Tremblay said. “We’re two evenly-matched teams. If we wrestle them a week later from now, it could be different. It’s tough when it comes down to a single point.” Injuries didn’t help, either. Berlin gave up 12 points in forfeits. Jack Rudy (285) missed the match with a concussion he suffered in the season-opening win over Glastonbury while J.R. Dynak (215) is still out for a hernia. Still, the Redcoats were right there. Berlin took a quick 16-0 in the match that began at 130 pounds with a pin from Chris Solek (130), a hard-fought 3-0 win by Kevin Moss (135) over John Brown, a 4-2 win by Justin Roncioli (140) over Jake Melhorn and Berube’s 11-point victory at 145. Middletown got on the board with Ronnie Brown’s win at 152 but Fiorillo extended the Berlin lead to 18 with a quick pin at 160. Fong admitted he would have liked to have seen senior Ryan Thiel challenge Fiorillo but the Dragons needed the points. Thiel moved up to 171 and won by pin and teammate Brian Sylvester (189) won by a 13-4 margin to cut the lead to 22-14. After two forfeits at 215 and 285, Middletown led for the first time, 26-22. Berlin’s Jared Grieder (103) pinned in 55 seconds and Will Matasuk (112) nearly caught Middletown sophomore Victor Ekpenyong in a 12-11 defeat. Matasuk trailed 10-4 at one point but his third period rally fell short. Both Berlin and Middletown still have to face No. 13 Farmington (10-0) along with Plainville and RHAM.“This race isn’t over. We lost by one to the defending Class L champion,” Tremblay said. “We’re going to keep working hard and correcting our mistakes.” |
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