Dylan Newman, top, will be important for Falconer/Cassadaga Valley in the lower weights this weekend. Photo by Michelle Gilbert | Charming Artistry

Over two weeks ago, when Newfane beat Falconer/Cassadaga Valley in the championship final of the Division II bracket at the Section VI Dual Meet Championships in Lancaster, Coach Drew Wilcox thought his team’s opportunity to wrestle for a team state championship was over.

Fast-forward to this past Monday when the Golden Cougars were given new life.

Falconer/Cassadaga Valley was awarded the lone Division II wild card in the state and this Saturday will compete for a New York Public High School Athletic Association championship at SRC Arena in Syracuse.

“It was a bit of a surprise to me,” Wilcox said Monday night. “They use some things from this season (to determine the wild card), along with what is normally the previous season. … Using last year’s information, I would’ve felt pretty good about it, but using stuff from two years ago … I didn’t think that would be enough to get us in.”

Dalton Caldwell and Austin Chase are Falconer/Cassadaga Valley’s only two starting wrestlers remaining from its 2020 championship team.

“We’ll have to lean on those two along with our three seniors and some other juniors,” Wilcox said Monday.

In 2020, the Golden Cougars trailed midway through their championship final against Section XI Mt. Sinai before pins in four of the final five weight classes. Brayden Newman capped off the comeback with a takedown in 1:49 at 106 pounds to secure the program’s first state dual meet championship.

Brock Johnson (195 pounds), Collin Beichner (220 pounds) and Collin Mower (285 pounds) also had pins in the final stretch on that early February evening.

The faces have changed now, but the goal has not.

Caldwell, a junior, is 27-13 wrestling primarily at 160 pounds while Chase, also a junior, is 25-7 at 152 pounds.

Falconer/Cassadaga Valley’s three seniors — Vinnie Bloomberg (126 pounds), Karsen DePasquale (132 pounds) and Kyle Keefe (172 pounds) — have a combined 76 wins between them.

“Karsen is jumping levels it seems like weekly. He’s been a huge surprise for us,” Wilcox said. “Kyle Keefe, (sophomore) Devyn Morrison (189 pounds), (junior) Brodie Little (160 pounds) and (junior) David Stein (285 pounds) in the upper weights are doing a raelly good job for us.”

Wilcox knows that even kids who might not have the best matchup in their weight class have to work hard to avoid pins, technical falls or major decisions.

“You can’t win a state championship without having kids man up and not get pinned,” he said. “We’ll have to find a lot of pins down there so hopefully we’ll get through to them.”

The state tournament has a format of four three-team pools in the morning. The winner of each pool advances to the semifinals before the winners there compete in the final for a title. As of Monday afternoon at noon, Falconer/Cassadaga Valley was in a pool with Section X champion Gouverneur and Section I champion Edgemont.

“We’ll focus on our pool with Gouverneur and Edgemont,” Wilcox said. “We’ll prepare for those two teams and try to win our pool. Anything can happen from there. You have to get to the semifinals before you can worry about the semifinals.”

At 9 a.m. Saturday, the Golden Cougars will take on Gouverneur followed by a 10 a.m. matchup with Edgemont. Falconer/Cassadaga Valley is scheduled for an 11 a.m. bye after possibly already knowing its fate.

“There are no easy passes down there. You have to get hot at the right time and you have to have a little luck,” Wilcox said. “We’ve been on both sides where we thought we were the best (in 2019) and didn’t get to the championship. The year we won, we thought Mt. Sinai was a little better and we found a way to do it.”

During a COVID world, the schedule could all change. Semifinals are set for 3 p.m. and finals are at 6.

Falconer/Cassadaga Valley already has come from a little bit of an underdog role earlier this season. Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Panama was ranked No. 4 in the state when the teams met during their Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 1 regular season and the Golden Cougars won, rather handidly, 38-21, en route to their 11th straight league title.

“To win something like this the whole team has to wrestle to the best of their ability. We’ve only done that once this year so hopefully we can strike lightning in a bottle,” Wilcox said. “Against CL/W/P, we wrestled really well. … We felt a little disrespected.

” … We’re one of the best programs,” Wilcox added, “and we’re still not getting ranked where I think we belong.”