Mount Greylock Downs Taconic

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – Midway through Wednesday’s dual meet season opener, the Mount Greylock wrestling team trailed Taconic by 15 points.

 

The Mounties had their heavy hitters coming up, but coach John Carvalho was not quite ready to start breathing easy.

 

“You never know with those guys,” Carvalho said after his team’s 50-30 win. “They’re funky. They have some weird ways of wrestling.

 

“But I tell them, you know, ‘Listen, we need six [points].’ They try to give us six the best they can. They’re top seeds in their weight class, along with Logan O’Connell. Tanner [Manning] is on the seeding poll. Most of our guys are going to do pretty well if they keep wrestling the way they’re wrestling now.”

 

Max Soto (157), Sam Pantano (165), Jacob Borawski (175) and Jayquan Vazquez (190) each took care of business with either a pin or a technical fall to give the Mounties a 38-30 lead before O’Connell and Manning each picked up a forfeit win at 215 and 275, respectively, to close out the match.

 

Carvalho said the night, “started out kind of crazy,” for the Mounties after two forfeits and three straight pins for the Thunder gave the visitors a 30-9 lead.

 

“Guys are injured or on vacation, and we have a lot of youth, a lot of newcomers on the bottom, but once the middle gets going, they seem to do their job and get things done,” Carvalho said.

 

The night’s most dramatic match came early on, when Mount Greylock’s Cash Kolodziej earned a near fall at the end of the third period to tie his match at 120 pounds and force overtime. Kolodziej then earned a takedown early in the extra session to take a 19-16 win and give the Mounties a 9-6 lead at the time.

 

But Jacob Schweizer (126), Brodie Kelly-Smith (132) and Gavin Maffuccio (138) each earned a pin to give Taconic a 24-9 lead before Austin Thorp picked up a forfeit win at 144 to put the Mounties in a 30-9 hole.

 

Taconic gave those points right back, though, as Mount Greylock’s Brian Liang claimed a forfeit win at 150 to make it 30-15, Taconic.

 

Max Soto started Mount Greylock on the comeback trail by jumping on top, 10-1, after one period of his bout at 157 before ending things with a technical fall with 36 seconds left in the second period.

 

That set the stage for Pantano, Borawski and Vazquez to post back-to-back-to-back pins that put the match out of reach.

 

Vazquez said he knows Taconic’s Malakai Lytle and was expecting him to come out aggressive. Vazquez needed just 50 seconds to get the pin and a 38-30 lead.

 

“We kind of just needed the points, and I really wanted to get those points, so I got it done,” he said.

 

Mount Greylock,which placed fourth in Western Mass last winter, has been getting the job done in the early going this year, posting a third-place photo at the Knighthawk Classic on Saturday heading into Wednesday’s home opener.

 

“I feel pretty good,” Vazquez said of the Mounties’ chances. “We had a couple of people quit on us, but it’s OK. We still have a good team, a great team. And we can keep pushing and making the team better.”

 

Photos from this match to come.

 

Mount Greylock 50, Taconic 30

106, Dominic Gagnon, Tac, won by forfeit

113, Nicolo Lebeau, MG, pinned Ivey Helmer, :49.

120, Cash Kolodziej, MG, def. Griffin Kotelnicki, 19-16 (OT)

126, Jacob Schweizer, Tac, pinned Za’Gare Ryan, 3:13.

132, Brodie Kelly-Smith, Tac, pinned Aiden Abreu, 5:00.

138, Gavin Maffuccio, Tac, pinned Aaron Lacasse, 1:33.

144, Austin Thorp, Tac, won by forfeit.

150, Brian Liang, MG, won by forfeit.

157, Max Soto, MG, tech fall, Jaxson Buzzella, 3:24.

165, Sam Pantano, MG, pinned Michael Warren, :33.

175, Jacob Borawski, MG, pinned Jerry Beaubrun, :56.

190, Jayquan Vazquez, MG, Malakai Lytle, :50.

215, Logan O’Connell, MG, won by forfeit.

275, Tanner Manning, MG, won by forfeit.