It wasn't a great night to be wearing anything other than Jamestown red on Wednesday.
Just ask the visiting Frontier Falcons.
In a dominating performance - the best thus far in the still young season - the Red Raiders' wrestlers gave the sizable crowd on hand in the old gym at Jamestown High School quite the show, collecting pins in five of their first six contested matches and victories in 13 of 15 battles overall to rout Frontier, 70-10, in an Erie County Interscholastic Conference Division 1 contest.
Article Photos
Jamestown’s Kyle Liuzzo record’s the clinching pin at 120 pounds over Frontier’s Paul Hendra during Wednesday’s Erie County Interscholastic Conference Division 1 victory. See additional photos at cu.post-journal.com.
P-J photos by Rob Tucker
So far, so good in the ever-important league competition; the victory improved Jamestown's mark in that department to a perfect 2-0.
All together, Frontier lost by fall in eight matches, and no individual wrestler recorded a point during a bout until the ninth match, when 126-pounder Evan Johnston scored a reversal early in the second period against Emiliano Velazquez.
"Yeah, this was definitely our best (performance) of the season," Jamestown coach Craig Swanson said. "I knew we should do well against them, but didn't know it could go like that. These guys just stayed focused and did a good job. It was a big league win, one we didn't want to let slip away because each and every week it'll get tougher and tougher."
Well, there was little danger of that happening in this one, especially given the start Swanson's crew enjoyed.
After Zack Eklum earned the victory to start the contest by forfeit, the next eight Jamestown wrestlers earned victories, including three in a row by virtue of a pin.
Nate Somerton, at 195 pounds, flattened Frontier's Zach Reese in 1:18, Jacis Blake followed with a pin in 2:47 of Lukas Bartone at 220 and then Sky Somerton muscled his 285-pound foe, Adam Gibson, to the ground and held from there to pick up victory by fall at 3:27 and balloon the advantage to a hefty 24-0.
As it turned out, the Red Raiders were just getting started.
Following the second (and final) forfeit of the evening at 99 pounds, Nick D'Angelo took an early, 2-0 lead over Jacob Dickey and then pinned him midway through the second period, Cody Risley forced his opponent to bow out due to injury and then Kyle Liuzzo clinched the contest by handling Paul Hendra with a minute remaining in the third period. The match ended when referee Lou Golando finally awarded the pin as Hendra's body was completely twisted, his head and shoulders facing up towards the ceiling and his lower half facing down towards the mat.
"I think we got on a good roll and the kids realized that they had to keep the ball rolling," Swanson said of the string of victories. "Everybody was giving it their all, and we got a lot of pins because of that. They wrestled hard tonight. I was really pleased with them."
Rocco Russo, a state place finisher a year ago, picked up Frontier's first victory of the evening at 132 pounds to cut the deficit to 51-6, but the Red Raiders answered with four victories in the final five matches, including a pair of sub-minute pins in the final two by Mike Southwick (35 seconds) and Brandon Whitacre (56 seconds) at 160 and 170 pounds, respectively.
"The kids wrestled smart," Swanson said, "and they stayed aggressive. That's the thing that's most important - not letting up, not letting their opponent get any opportunities and keeping constant pressure on them."
Jamestown will hope to take that mentality into the gym next Wednesday when it hosts Williamsville North for another crucial league match.
182: Zack Eklum (J) by forfeit.
195: Nate Somerton (J) p. Zach Reese, 1:18.
220: Jacis Blake (J) p. Lukas Bartone, 2:47.
285: Sky Somerton (J) p. Adam Gibson, 3:27.
99: Dakota Lewis (J) by forfeit.
106: Nick D'Angelo (J) p. Jacob Dickey, 2:50.
113: Cody Risley (J) by injury default.
120: Kyle Liuzzo (J) p. Paul Hendra, 5:00.
126: Emiliano Velazquez (J) d. Evan Johnston, 4-3.
132: Rocco Russo (F) p. Mark Conklin, :55.
138: Nolan Margaglio d. Joe Nowak, 4-2.
145: Adam Gullo d. Roy Cuthbert, 11-4.
152: Seth Jones (F) d. Shaq Rahim, 11-3.
160: Mike Southwick (J) p. Kevin Zhang, :35.
170: Brandon Whitacre (J) p. Andy Harbison, :56.