East Wins, North Loses on Mahoney's Night

It wasn't all about Jack Mahoney Wednesday, and was only custom to have both Sachem High School East and North hit the mat in dual meets to make the night official.

East came out on top, beating Commack, 39-27, in a League I match, while North lost to Central Islip, 37-30, in a League II bout on alumni night at Sachem North in Lake Ronkonkoma.

East (3-1 League I, 12-5 overall) opened with a 13-0 lead after wins by Rob Seder (152), Zach Nobre (160) and Frank Merante (171), but took a dive in the middle of the match from 189 to 103.

Commack’s Alex Keyles beat Steven Casali at 189, 5-3. Mike Marchello lost his match, 3-1, at 215, and Josiah Rosa lost to Robert Babijko via technical fall, closing the gap to 13-12 on the scoreboard.

Doug Iadanza lost his bout at 96 pounds and Sachem forfeited at 103.

Conor O’Hara led a resurgence as Sachem added points after his 6-4 win over Jim Spencer at 112. Tyler Monsees took a step backwards and lost, 10-4. at 119, but Anthony Messina won at 125, Jackson Mordente earned a tech fall over Kyle Reim and Billy Merone beat Jake Staffieri, 15-2, at 135 pounds, allowing East to regain a 29-27 advantage.

The Arrows closed the match with a win by Anthony Pistone at 140 and a decisive tech fall by Sean O’Malley at 145.

“We were a little bit flat tonight, but got the job done,” said Sachem East head coach Sean O’Hara. “We dropped a couple of individual matches that we normally don’t want to. It’s okay this time of year. We’re looking to peak at the right time.”

Sachem North, on the other hand, was upset by a weaker Central Islip squad. This match continued to remain on the ledge the entire meet, never tipping until the very end.

North earned early wins from James Schreck (152) and Vin Fragale (160) and big victories from Mike McCarthy, who beat Matt Goulboune, 11-3, at 215 pounds and Anthony Confessore, who blanked Joe Sanchez, 8-0, at 285, but the Arrows never gained any consistency.

Matt Stallone dropped his bout at 96 pounds to Walter Ibanez, then Sean O’Hagan answered back with a 12-4 win over Mike Figueroa at 103 to take a 21-14 lead. Loses for Alec Ross (112) and Frank Napoli (119) put Sachem down 26-21 and it never regained the lead.

“We had guys who went to their backs and got pinned and they didn’t,” North head coach Ray Pickersgill said. “Matches where we should have probably gotten pins we didn’t, and matches where they should have gotten pins, they did. It happened three times and as a result of that, we lost the match.”

Sachem East will hit the mat next on Jan. 25 against Ward Melville on the road, while North travels to Connetquot, Jan. 21.