North Wrestling Takes Second In Davidson Tourney

At the Joe Davidson Memorial Tournament at Sachem North, the Arrows registered dozens of individual victories and logged hundreds of minutes on the mat collectively. They stuffed more experience into the two-day tourney than they could ever have asked for. Sachem had to settle for second place out of 10 teams, but they're better off than they were when they entered the week, and better prepared for the League II gauntlet that lurks next week.

After North won all of its matches on the opening day, it was tripped up by another unbeaten, Farmingdale, by a 41-28 count to start Thursday's action. Sachem went on to defeat West Babylon and East Islip to go 7-1 overall, but the Dalers got through their eight matches without a loss, winning the second annual duals tournament.

"I thought we exceeded expectations," North head coach Ray Pickersgill said. "I thought it would be good we could break even at 4-4 against a field that's improving. We beat Eastport-South Manor, we beat the Suffolk County Division II champion [Bayport-Blue Point] and we hung in against Farmingdale. We showed some growth there. I have a better handle on which guys can go where and who I can count on moving forward into the league season."

All six of Sachem's victories were by double digits, including against West Babylon (39-27) and East Islip (42-24) to close out the tourney. Overall, Bayport-Blue Point finished with a 7-1 record as well, but Wednesday's 36-22 win broke the tie for second.

Like the Arrows, Farmingdale had gotten through the first day of duals unscathed, and it continued its dominance as the two unbeaten teams met at high noon. Anthony Confessore got North off to a good start, keeping his unbeaten run in the tournament going with a 3-0 decision over Brendan Tenny.

Despite Confessore's win and the ensuing pin by Matt Stallone at 96 pounds, the Dalers proved superior through the rest of the low and middle weights, winning every match but two from 103 to 171. Among those wins were four pins and a technical fall. With the win, Farmingdale avenged the 36-30 loss to North at last year's duals tournament.

"They're a deep team that returned a lot of guys from last year, and they're well-coached," Pickersgill said. "We went up early, but then all of a sudden we lost a couple matches I didn't think we were going to lose. It was disappointing overall. We started big, flattened out and never got it going again."

The match wasn't without highlights however. Gio Santiago pinned his opponent at 189 pounds, and amidst the Dalers' run, Frank Napoli continued his hot streak, overwhelming the Dalers' Joe Depalma, 17-4, at 119 pounds.

North didn't have much time to lick their wounds from the loss, and instead it took it out on West Babylon. Over the course of the two days, Pickersgill was able to sub in some new faces, and many of them flourished. Against the Eagles, 130-pounder James Sanzone scored a 3-1 triumph over Matt Quirk, and at 135, Mike Foley rebounded from a winless first day to record a third-period pin in the West Babylon match. He came back just hours later to beat Ryan Harmer, 2-0, with an early takedown in overtime.

James Schreck finished with a flurry for Sachem, pinning West Babylon's Jon Gonzales, who defeated him at the Kings Park duals earlier this month, in just 1:40. He was even quicker in disposing of East Islip's Chris Spotts, doing so in 1:32. Schreck finished the two-day tourney with a 5-2 record, including three wins by fall.

"At 152, most of the time you're looking at juniors and seniors, and he's a first-year varsity starter winning three-quarters of his matches," Pickersgill said of Schreck.

Vin Provenzano also pinned his opponent in the East Islip match and he, too, completed the tournament with a 5-2 mark. Mike McCarthy had a perfect second day, winning first by forfeit against Farmingdale and then twice by decision. He was 6-2 for the tourney.

Napoli was finally halted at 119 by David DellaVecchia, who was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler, but he had an outstanding tournament himself, going 6-1 to win team MVP honors. O'Hagan improved to 7-1 with a pin of East Islip's Hunter Ingram, his second win on the day. Alec Ross was locked in a tight battle through two periods against EI 112-pounder Sal Cipolla, but a lightning-quick reversal resulted in a pin at 4:51 and six big points. Foley, McCarthy and Nick Iannello also prevailed. Confessore finished off his standout tournament by pinning Daniel Hayden at 2:07.

"We could have tailspun and lost the next two matches after losing to Farmingdale but we didn't," Pickersgill said. "Going 7-1 for a team that came in 0-2 is not terrible. You always like to go 8-0, but I'll take it."

Pickersgill was especially thrilled with the efforts of Franky Blais – "he's a kid that just seems to keep getting better and showing a better grasp of what he has to do every time he's out there – as well as Matt Marino. The freshman went 2-1 Thursday with two tight wins by decision.

North returns to action on Wednesday, January 5, when it visits League II foe Northport (6 p.m.).

Sachem's Thursday matches

• Lost to Farmingdale, 41-28
• Beat West Babylon, 39-27
• Beat East Islip, 42-24

Top Sachem wrestlers

• Anthony Confessore, 285: 5-0 with 3 pins
• Sean O'Hagan, 103: 7-1 with 3 pins
• Frank Napoli, 119: 6-1 with 1 pin

Top tournament wrestlers

• West Babylon's Steven Lee (96): 8-0 with 7 pins
• Eastport-South Manor's Travis Passaro (103/112): 8-0 with 5 pins
• Shoreham-Wading River's T.J. Fabian (112): 8-0 with 7 pins
• East Islip's David DellaVecchia (119): 7-0 with 5 pins
• Eastport-South Manor's Maverick Passaro (125): 8-0 with 2 pins, 5 by technical fall, 1 by majority decision
• Bayport-Blue Point's Kyle Underwood (130): 8-0 with 4 pins
• Shoreham-Wading River's Zak Mullen (135): 8-0 with 4 pins
• Bayport-Blue Point's Brandin Thomas (140/145): 8-0 with 6 pins
• Shoreham-Wading River's John Keck (145): 8-0 with 3 pins
• West Babylon's C.J. Doherty (160): 8-0 with 2 pins
• Deer Park's Rich Lugo (171): 8-0 with 2 pins
• Eastport-South Manor's Ryan Cutler (189): 8-0 with 3 pins
• Deer Park's Joe Bilello (215): 8-0 with 4 pins
• Newfield's Karl Rindfliesch (285): 8-0 with 6 pins, other 2 by forfeit

Final standings

1. Farmingdale: 8-0

2. Sachem North: 7-1

3. Bayport-Blue Point: 7-1

4. Eastport-South Manor 4-4

5. East Islip: 4-4

6. Shoreham-Wading River: 4-4

7. West Babylon: 3-5

8. Lindenhurst: 2-6

9. Newfield: 1-7

10. Deer Park: 0-8