Minutemen Youth Wrestling

"It’s a great day. This is a tough tournament. Platt was ranked, Hand was ranked, Waterford was ranked, we were ranked like 17th, and the other teams are tough. There was no easy match today," Tremblay said. "We lost to Waterford during the season by quite a bit, so to be able to come back and beat them shows that our kids are improving."

Hand, however, controlled the pace of the matchup from start to finish, scoring wins in the first three bouts to build up a 15-0 lead, which they would eventually turn into a 39-26 victory.

"[Hand’s] a good team, and they’re able to make moves which we can’t make," Tremblay said. "They have big numbers, they can adjust their lineup, and we’ve got to go with what we got, so sometimes we’re at a disadvantage there."

After a 5-1 decision gave the Redcoats their first points of the match, senior captain Kevin Moss brought Berlin to within six points by earning a dominant 17-2 decision.

Moss and junior Jack Banks were the only two Redcoats to win in all four matchups on the day.

Moss, who wrestles at 135 pounds, remains undefeated on the season for Berlin.

The win against Waterford served as the highlight of the day for Tremblay.

The Redcoats, who fell to Waterford 42-28 on Dec. 27, defeated one of the top 10 teams in the state this time around.

The victory was due in no small part to Jack Rudy victory in the final bout of the match, which clinched the slim win.

"That was a huge match," Tremblay said. "If he lost but didn’t get majored, we would have won by one [point]. If he got majored it would have been tied, and it would have gone down to most pins. So instead of having any guessing there, he won outright, and that’s good. ... He’s a senior, he works hard in practice, so that was a great win for him."

The 3-1 mark on Saturday improved Berlin’s season record to 11-3, a solid mark at this point in the season.

But Tremblay said the team needs to continue to improve individually to advance as a whole.

"They wrestled hard, they did what they had to do to win the match. We could work on our intensity level a little against teams like that. But they wrestled hard and did what they needed to do. We had some kids that were a little under the weather, but they fought through it," Tremblay said. "There’s still always room [for improvement]. There’s individual work we’ve got to work on. As a team overall, I’m happy with where we’re at, but individually we still have a lot to work on for our goals of a conference title and possibly state title."

Tremblay said the Redcoats have only won the annual tournament four times since its inception in the 1980s when it was simply called the Berlin Duals. But that number is more a factor of the high number of quality teams the tournament attracts each year, rather than struggles for Berlin.

The upcoming schedule doesn’t get much easier for Berlin, as the Redcoats next take part in the Eagle Classic next Saturday at East Catholic High School.

"Again, another big tournament," Tremblay said. "Mount Anthony is there, they’re ranked in New England. I think there a couple other teams that are ranked. South Windsor is ranked second and they’ll be there."