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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.” |
Berlin 49 Vs Plainville 18No score for this post |
January 3 2008, 9:19 PM |
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In Conference Action on Thursday night the Redcoats dominated Plainville |
Our tournament will not be held in 2016. In the future we will need everyone's help to make this a success.
Set-up: If there is no tournament on Saturday, Friday we will move our mat from McGee to High School. Set-up weigh-in area with scale. Signs placed throughout building as needed.
Registration: These people will need to be there early to register wrestlers and make sure spectator's pay their $3.00 admission fee.
1 person is in charge of collecting money from parents. Place a mark on back of hand.
2 people will handle team (wrestler check-in), If a wrestler is marked on the sheet to be checked for weight you would send them to weigh in area for check. Give them weigh-in card. Checks collected from team coach should be made payable to "Berlin Wrestling Club." Any wrestler's who are not attending (scratches) must be given to the head table immediately. Give head coach team list which has bracket number.
2 people handle weigh-in. Check weight and mark on list actual weight. Anyone over three pounds their registered weight must be sent to head table.
Concession Stand: These individuals will set-up, cook, sell goods for people attending. Officials eat for free and will have a stripped shirt on. Wear gloves when serving food that is not packaged such as hot dogs, grinders, ziti. If we do pizza - Pick-up pizza as needed to have available throughout the day. Children should not be behind concession stand.
First Aide: Need a Certified Trainer to be on hand to handle medical situations. Will need ice from school and plastic bags for ice.
Table Workers: We need three people to work each table. The jobs at each table include timing, scoring and scoreboard operation. In some instances the scoreboard and timing are the same person. If we have 10 surfaces we will need 30 people to help. We will get members of the high school team to help with this job.
Security: We need help keeping people in the stands and out of the wrestling area. You can’t be a nice guy to do this job. 4-6 people. We will also need to station someone downstairs near the wrestling room hallway due to a problem in the past. No one should be on lower level of school.
Clean-up: We will need help from everyone to clean-up and put the mats away at the end of the day. Tables will need to be broken down and all supplies put in area near head table. We will need to clean bleachers and any other garbage in the gymnasium. Mats will need to be rolled and placed in closet in hallway.
Everyone should plan on arriving by 7:30 AM on Sunday to start work unless otherwise specified. This is a very important day for the club and everyone's help is greatly appreciated.
Madison – The Shoreline Challenge Tournament
At Walter C. Polson Middle School on Sunday, January 6, 2008, two lone Minutemen travelled to compete in the Shoreline Challenge. In the Midget Division Nick Zuk came out on top with a first place finish and Colin Cunningham took 2nd place in the Novice Division.
On Sunday, January 6, 2008 at Glastonbury High School eleven Minutemen again competed in a Novice Tournament with the following results.
Mighty Mite Luke Mangiafico placed 3rd with a technical fall. In the Bantam Division, Matthew Wojciechowski led the way with a first place finish while Isaac Myers placed 2nd and Matthew Peck placed 3rd.
In the Midget Division Anthony Myers placed 1st, Jack Hamel and Connor Ruszcyk placed 2nd and Tyler Bajjo, Cody Ruszczyk and Joseph Pettinelli placed 4th.
The lone afternoon wrestler was Frank Cirullo who placed 4th on the day.
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