Flames scorch Billies, place 10th at ECICs
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Sweet Home's Daiquann Burney, left, faces off against Williamsville South's Luke Falzone, during a 103-pound match at last weekend's ECIC Championships at East Aurora High School. Burney finished fourth. Falzone took sixth. Photo by John Normile Purchase color photos at www.BeeNews.com

By all accounts, the Williamsville East wrestling team's inaugural homecoming/ alumni match last Wednesday was an overwhelming success.

"We had a real packed house," said East coach Henry Fumerelle. "We probably had close to a couple hundred people. Whenever any of the former East wrestlers signed in, they wrote down their e-mails so we have got more of a database for our program. We're going to continue to do it in the future. I want to thank the Williamsville East Wrestling Booster Club, specifically Mrs. Munoz for catering the food (prior to the meet) and for Mrs. Trabert and Mrs. Beichner for coordinating the event."

The 2007-08 Flames did not disappoint, routing Williamsville South, 61-9.

"It was the first time we had lost in basketball and football in the same year so we wanted to make a mark," said Fumerelle.

East did just that, winning its first 10 matches by pins. Its first three pins came in exhibition matches by Dan Kuruvilla in the second period at 119, Ryan Tideswell in the first period at 285 and Carlton Brock in the third period at 171.

East's next seven pins opened the varsity match beginning with Jacob Beichner in the first period at 125. Max Cohen (first period, 130), Matt Callari (second period, 135), Brandon Munoz (first period, 140), Sean Trabert (first period, 145), Jayson Dieckman (first period, 152) and Steve Meyer (second period, 160) followed.

Will Kelly (6-2, 171), MP Joseph (first period pin, 189), Sam Beichner (forfeit, 103) and Ben Mikac (14-5 major decision, 119) also scored victories for East. Eighth-grader Andrew Dieckman bumped up a weight class but fell 6-3 at 112.

The win improved East's dual meet record to 7-1. The Flames had lost to Section V's Holley but Holley used an illegal wrestler and had to forfeit the match.

East concluded the week with an impressive 10th place out of 27 teams at last weekend's ECIC Championships held at East Aurora High School. The Flames finished with 90.50 points.

East had four place finishers, led by Cohen, who lost in the finals at 130 to Lancaster's Clint Schaefer, 6-5. Jayson Dicekman placed fourth at 152. Sam Beichner and Trabert took fifth at 96 and 140, respectively.

Cohen led Schaefer 4-0 after the first period. Schaefer trailed 4-3 but tied the score after Cohen was called for stalling. Cohen got a point in the third for an escape but was taken down by Schaefer with 18 seconds remaining.

Cohen finished 3-1 on the day. Cohen, seeded second, pinned Hamburg's Kyle Persons in the third period, defeated seventh seed Aaron Crowley of West Seneca West, 11-2, in the quarterfinals, and beat sixth seed Jim Kloc of Iroquois, 1-0, in the semifinals.

Jayson Dieckman, seeded third, lost two matches by pin against the same wrestler, Clarence's Kris Duge. Dieckman was pinned in 4:41 in the quarterfinals and in 2:35 in the third-fourth match.

Jayson Dieckman opened with a pinfall win in 1:53 over Lackawanna's Omar Ahmed. In wrestlebacks, Dieckman pinned Alden's Jacob Wojtusiak, seeded eighth, in 4:39, beat Pioneer's Tony Lock, 7-4, and blanked Depew's Brad Barth, seeded fourth, 2-0.

Sam Beichner, seeded seventh, went 3-2 at ECICs, pinning Alden's Bobby Broad in 5:29 before losing to Tonawanda's Jordan McGregor, 11-8.

In wrestlebacks, Beichner beat Iroquois' Nick Roberts, 8-4, Starpoint's Jimmy Whittall, 2-1, and lost to Lackawanna's Abdulgawi Mohamed, 10-8 in overtime, before beating Pioneer's Brandon Price, 11-3, for fifth.

Trabert, seeded fourth, knocked off Iroquois' Chris Zaporowski, 10-3 and Eden's Eddie Sarcione, 2-1 before losing to eventual tournament champion, Nic Stella of Sweet Home, 3-1, in the semifinals. The Stella match was scoreless after the first period.

"Sean was not intimidated by Nic," said Fumerelle. "I thought he was on the verge of winning the match."

In wrestlebacks, Trabert lost 4-2 to Clarence's Josh Feiler and beat second-seed Bill Ellis of Lancaster, 5-3, for fifth.

"It was a real testament of wills for Sean to come off the loss to Feiler and beat Ellis," said Fumerelle. "It took a lot of guts and mental toughness."

At 112, Mikac beat Maryvale's Ryan Manuela, 13-3 and Orchard Park's Colby McNichol, 9-2, before losing to top-seed Rob Brody of Eden, 17-0, in 3:45. In wrestlebacks, Mikac defeated Alden's Brandon Hassenbohler, 7-1, then lost to Iroquois' Joe Kalinka, 3-2, in four overtimes. Mikac was a match away from competing in a placing round.

At 125, fourth-seed Jacob Beichner also wrestled well, finishing 2-2. Beichner edged coach Fumerelle's nephew, Zach Fumerelle of Sweet Home, 1-0, in a rematch of the Akron Holiday Tournament before falling 3-1 to Jamestown's Max Murray, seeded fifth. In wrestlebacks, he blanked Justin Michel of Lancaster, 3-0, then was shut out, 6-0, by West Seneca East's Rich Rutkowski.

Callari won his first two matches at 135, beating Amherst's Sean Cunningham by pinfall in 3:25 and shutting out West Seneca East's Steve McMines, 7-0, then lost two matches in wrestlebacks.

MP Joseph, seeded seventh at 189, opened with a 4-3 victory over West Seneca East's Jeremy Galante, in a rematch of the Akron Holiday Tournament. Joseph then lost by pinfall in 1:48 to Lake Shore's Alex Abramo, seeded second, in the quarterfinals. In wrestlebacks, Joseph pinned Jamestown's Steve Hinson in 1:53 then lost 3-2 in three overtimes to Williamsville North's Mike Herberger.

"MP really wanted that match bad but Herberger wrestled a little stronger," said Fumerelle.

East was without Andrew Dieckman (103), Munoz (140) and Ryan Cravatta (119).

The Flames return to action on Saturday in the Lew-Port Lancers' Pete Rao Memorial Invitational Varsity Wrestling Tournament.