The Cheshire wrestling team won three consecutive matches by pins to start its dual meet with Foran of Milford on Senior Night Thursday at Cheshire High School.
The Rams encountered a few bumps from there but wound up walking away with an efficient 45-32 Southern Connecticut Conference (SCC) victory over the Lions.
Cheshire (12-8) finished with six pins and three of Foran's four victories also came by pin. Two matches were forfeits — a victory at 103 for Foran, one at 285 for Cheshire — with only two matches ending in decisions.
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Sophomore Tim Holman, wrestling at 171 pounds in place of Mike Yavorek (who is out with a concussion) started things off for the Rams with a pin 29 seconds into his match with Ben Croll.
Cheshire junior Jack Senft pinned junior John Lips at 189 pounds at 2:43 of the second period, and Rams' sophomore Tyler Dion followed with a pin at 1:53 of the first at 215 against sophomore Pat Abbrazia.
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"Great win tonight. Always nice to win on Senior Night," Cheshire Head Coach Eric Mills said. "Some of the matches didn't go the way we wanted to for our seniors, but you use it as a learning experience and get better tomorrow. We haven't really been able to practice a lot due to the weather. I think that hurts us. A little bit rusty out there. But we can't make excuses. We have to go out every night like it's our last match and give it our all.
"We need to pin to win, I've been saying it all year," Mills added. "For Tim Holman to bump up to 171 and fill in a hole for us, that's huge. You could see there was no way he was losing that match and got the job done. You just love to see that from a kid like that."
With Cheshire up 24-6 after the two forfeits, Foran received its first win from sophomore Captain C.J. Luth, who pinned freshman Lucas Swan in the 103-pound class at 3:09 of the second while holding a 7-0 lead.
Foran (5-20) earned its other victories from sophomore Jesus Ortiz with a 10-2 decision over sophomore Scott Bergeron at 125; from senior Rick Garcia at 140 in a match that was tied at seven with Cheshire senior Andrew Rodgers, when Garcia won on a pin at 2:43 of the second period; and on junior Mark Steeves' pin of Andi Mino at 160 pounds at 2:43 of the second.
"Most of my guys wrestled well. I have a very young team," Foran Coach Frank Peters said. "I have a team with one senior on the roster who pinned their senior captain and I had a sophomore step up and beat one of their other seniors. My young team has come a long way. I think if my 171 hadn't been injured (junior Peter Bassine, shoulder), things could have gone a lot differently tonight. I can only ask for a good solid effort from my guys and they gave me that tonight."
But by the time Garcia had won his match at 140, Cheshire had put the meet out of reach when Rams senior Scott Tomlinson (see second video) put on one of the more dominant performances of the night at 135 pounds with a pin of sophomore Luke Stojanowski at 1:30.
"Over the past four years I've progressed a lot but as far as the season, I think I've come about as far as I'm going to come," Tomlinson said. "Now I have to see how far I go. I've never really had a strong end-of-season finish so I'm really looking to fix that this year."
"I'm trying to get Scott firing on all cylinders going toward the end of the year," Mills said. "Really need him to start realizing he's in the elite class of wrestlers and start really going after kids like he did tonight and that was just a great performance."
Freshmen Jake Cervero (119) and Will Lamb (130) earned Cheshire's other pins. Cervero pinned sophomore Nick Holt at 1:52 of the first after building a 7-0 lead, and Lamb pinned sophomore Kyle Carriero with 19 seconds left in their match.
Cheshire sophomore Dan Massucci took a 7-0 decision over sophomore Steve Bailey at 145, and Foran sophomore Clay Callahan defeated senior Joe Greco 9-0 at 152.
