Sweet Home beats Frontier, loses close dual to North
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Sweet Home defeated Frontier, 35-24, on Jan. 10 and lost to Williamsville North, 36-31, last Wednesday, although Sweet Home coach Chris Nadeau feels his wrestling team should have won both.

Nadeau bumped Alex Dennis, Ryan Murray, Dan Balsom and Paul Fazekas up a weight class against Frontier and the gamble seemed to pay off. Dennis, Murray and Balsom scored pins at 152, 160, and 171, respectively. Dennis pinned Jed Burnhardt in 1:20, Murray beat Matt Hilderbrandt in 1:57 and Balsom defeated Dave Notwora in 3:13.

Fazekas lost 5-4 to Sean Alford. Fazekas was ahead 4-2 but Alford escaped and took him down, Nadeau said.

Gage Bateman (112, tech pin in second period, 15-0), Zach Fumerelle (125, def. Mike Toole, 8-3), Matt Danwin (130, beat Pete Lacido 5-2), and Nic Stella (140, pinned Jesse Kublas in 29 seconds) picked up victories for the Panthers.

Sweet Home led North, 31-30, heading into the final match of the night. At 145, North's Matt Proven pinned Sweet Home's Andrew Serio in 2:38. The match was tied at 2-2 before Proven reversed Serio and pinned him.

"I don't know if it was a letdown from the North tournament but we didn't wrestle to the best of our ability and it almost cost us in the end," said North coach Brian Swatland. "Sweet Home outwrestled us at most of the weight classes. We were very fortunate to get out of there with a win."

A Panthers victory looked good early on. Murray opened at 152 with a pinfall over Desmond Little at 4:42 of the third period. Balsom followed with a reversal and pin over Phil Constantinou at 3:17 of the second period at 160. Constantinou was up 4-0 but was rolled through to his back.

Fazekas almost gave Sweet Home an 18-0 lead but lost a 6-4 overtime decision to P.J. Abbarno at 171. Fazekas was ahead 4-0 in the third period when Abbarno reversed and put him on his back to tie it at 4-4.

"That was the match in my mind," said Nadeau. "If Paul pulls that out, we win (overall) by a point."

Daiquann Burney (103, forfeit), Bateman (112, 14-0 over Stephen Liebler), Fumerelle (125, 9-2 over Tommy Kellner) and Stella (pinned Abbas Rizvi in 2:47) earned Sweet Home victories.

Matt Aloisio (189, pinned Dave Rhodes in 1:50), Brad Adkins (215, pinned Nico Fisher in 3:58), Alex Booth (119, forfeit), Jake Caprow (130, defeated Danwin, 10-6), and Nate Carbrey (135, pinned Corey Mitchum in 53 seconds) picked up wins for the Spartans.

The win improved North to 6-3 in duals; Sweet Home fell to 2-5.

North wrestles at Clarence at 6:30 p.m. on Friday before competing in the Depew Varsity Tournament on Saturday. North placed third last year.

Through the North dual, Stella had 43 takedowns, eight escapes, 13 reversals, six pins, eight technical falls and 40 near falls. Murray was 11-5 with six pins and 24 reversals. Bateman was 10-4 with four technical falls. Balsom had six pins.

In other Sweet Home wrestling news, Rhodes (189) and Matt Cobb (145) each went 4-2 at the recent Lockport JV tournament. Dennis and Serio were each 2-2 at 145. Fisher and Sebastian were 1-2 at 215.

Sweet Home is off until they host the Joe Shifflet Sweet Home Invitational Friday and Saturday.

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com