On Saturday afternoon at SRC Arena, the Golden Falcons snatched victory from the proverbial jaws of defeat by the slimmest of margins, defeating Section XI Mt. Sinai, 40-39, to claim a New York State Public High School Athletic Association Division II Dual Meet Championship.

In a final match that was filled with wild back-and-forth swings, a fitting conclusion began when Brayden Newman exited a huddle of his teammates knowing that only a pin of Derek Menechino at 106 pounds would be enough to claim gold.

“He (coach Wilcox) said, ‘Go out there and be calm and believe in yourself,” said Newman. “He goes, ‘I want no one else in this situation but you.’ He said, ‘You’re the guy for this, go get it done.'”

The coach certainly knows his team.

Falconer/Cassadaga Valley's Brayden Newman, right, is seen in a first-round match against Section V Palmyra Macedon. P-J photo by Jay Young

After some early success on offense, Newman found himself in a compromised position with Menechino looking for a cradle. Even under the brightest of lights with the weight of his program on his shoulders, the talented junior was able to remain composed and pick up a reversal before sealing up a win via fall in the closing seconds of the first round at 1:49.

“Brayden is a pinner, but he also can make some mistakes at times,” said Wilcox. “You saw when he almost got cradled there, but he fought through the cradle and he stepped up for his team and he found a way to get a pin. That is what great teams do and this is a great team.”

In that moment, with everything at stake and his opponent in a dominant position, Newman thought of the work that his teammates had put in all season for him to get to that point.

“I need to get off my back,” Newman said of that difficult moment. “I’ve worked way too hard for this to let my teammates down, let my coaches down, everything they have done for me. I just knew I had the heart and I was going to get it done.”

But Newman was just the final epilogue in a Saturday story that featured a host of brilliant moments. When Brock Johnson exited the huddle for his 195-pound bout against Adham Shata of Mt. Sinai, the walls already appeared to be closing in. The Mustangs held a 33-22 lead in that moment, and early on it looked like Shata would be the one to make that margin insurmountable.

Falconer/Cassadaga Valley’s Bryce Baglia, top, competes in the finals. P-J photo by Jay Young

“To be honest, when we got to 195 we thought it was probably over,” said Wilcox. “You saw Brock, he was in a four-foot high bridge, the ref made the right call. He could have easily broke his neck but he was not giving up for anything. He fought off his back and he ended up getting the fall for his team. That just says everything you need to know about Brock Johnson.”

Shata would threaten a pin, forcing Johnson into a defensive back-bend before the action was eventually stopped due to a potentially dangerous position. Moments after being on the wrong side of the action, Johnson turned the tables and finished Shata inside the first round to ignite the Golden Falcons’ sideline.

“He fought for his teammates, he fought for his community, he fought for our Falconer wrestling family and he was a huge reason why we won that state title,” Wilcox said.

Yet still more heroics were needed for Falconer/Cassadaga Valley. In order to give Newman a shot at victory, both Collin Beichner at 220 and Collin Mower at 285 would need to earn wins via fall. Both were certainly capable of that, but in the fourth match of a 12-hour day, defense is usually a whole lot easier than offense. Beichner would finish Gian Luca Ferrara in the closing seconds of the second period, but Mower was forced into the final two-minute stretch against Alex Day. Exhausted and grappling an opponent who was happy to slow the action down, Mower was forced to dig deep in his gas tank for a finish with 16 seconds remaining.

“Collin and Collin, you know they had to get falls,” Wilcox said. “They knew they had to get falls and Beichner took care of it fairly early. Mower, he was tired, really tired. He had that big wide-eyed looked, but he found a way. Again, when you are part of something like this, a community like this, a family like this Falconer wrestling family, you have special moments like that.”

Falconer/Cassadaga Valley head coach Drew Wilcox celebrates with supporters on Saturday. P-J photo by Jay Young

One of the beauties of the state duals is that a team doesn’t need one or two of those decisive moments to hoist a trophy at the end, they usually need dozens of them.

Bryce Baglia alone was the source of several key performances, as he went a perfect 4-0 on the day, wrestling at both 160 and 152. When points meant the most in the final match, the senior came up huge once again with a major decision win over Tristan Nardi.

Freshman Austin Chase would also sweep four matches at a 113 pounds, including a final-period pin of Mt. Sinai’s Shawn Wells for his third win via fall of the day. Grapplers, including Joey Pillittieri (132 and 126), Hudson Johnson (182), Karsen DePasquale (120), John Kozlowski (170) and Mack Mikula (152 and 160), all showed up when their team needed them the most.

“This is our third time here, we’ve come up short twice,” Newman said. “We kept telling each other, ‘We have four more duals to win and we are state champs.’ That was the mentality and we finally got down to the finals and it was one more. A team effort is way better than just yourself. You win as a team, you lose as a team. As an individual, I mean you have no one but yourself to blame. It’s just a total team effort.”

There was a tangible excitement in the wrestling community when the state duals were put back on the schedule three years ago, and now that excitement has been realized as triumph for Falconer/Cassadaga Valley.

“Number one, this is by far the best accomplishment our program has ever had,” said Wilcox. “This is unbelievable. I probably have 25 kids on my team or maybe more who will never see an individual state tournament. For them to be able to experience this, every single one of them is in that room busting their butts every single day. For them to be able to experience something like this is something they’ll never forget. I’m so happy and thankful that they started this tournament. I’m so happy for all of those kids, they earned it.”

The Golden Cougars were 51-31 winners over Section V Palmyra Macedon in their first match before topping Section III Central Valley, 45-33, and Section VIII Clarke, 42-30, on their way to the finals.