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Sports

Ledyard Snaps Devonites' 15-Match Winning Streak

Kostopoulos leads Law wrestlers with a 21-2 record.

While the Jonathan Law wrestling team rolled over Avon (42-36), South Kingston, RI (58-14), and Sabis, MA (a charter school,  59-18), it also was defeated by Ledyard (43-27) last Saturday at the Ledyard Duals.

The loss to the host Colonials ended the Golden Eagles’ bid for an undefeated season and also snapped its 15-match winning streak.  The Lawmen are currently ranked No. 15 in the state.

Ryan Bannon (125 pounds), Ted Kostopoulos (215), Dan Iovino-Ortiz (285), were all 4-0. Iovino-Ortiz recorded four pins while his two teammates recorded two pins each. Tyler Marchetti was 2-0 with a pair of pins.

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Evan DeLorio (112), Brian Manes (119), Joe Bannon (130), Sam Grace (145), and Stephon Davis (171) all won three of their four matches. Grace recorded three pins. The others in that group each recorded a pair of pins.

According to Coach Matt Schoonmaker, “I thought we wrestled really well at Ledyard. With last week’s snow storm, no one could practice on Wednesday or Thursday, so we all went into the tournament with only one day of practice. It hurt everyone during our first match with Avon. Everybody looked a little sluggish. After that match, we all got right into the swing of things.”

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Schoonmaker reported that South Kingston had a highly-rated team until it recently lost a pair of former All-State wrestlers. He rated Sabis as “a much improved team that is currently ranked third in its section.”

Turning to the loss to Ledyard (currently ranked No. 5 in the state), he said, “They won seven of the 13 individual matches. We had to forfeit Tyler Baker’s match. If he had been able to wrestle, he probably would have won, which would have made the Ledyard match much closer. Ledyard is an excellent team and I knew coming in that we had to be careful not to get pinned or tech falled. I also did not expect us to get a lot of pins. Unfortunately, those things did happen to us. While we won at 189 and 215, we did not get pins and that cost us key points.”

Late in the match, Law got within nine points of Ledyard—but never any closer.

Schoonmaker added, “We just didn’t match up well with Ledyard, but we were the only team to come close to them on Saturday. I think they are the team to beat in Class M.”

Kostopoulos currently has a 21-2 record, which is the best on the team. Davis is 18-2, followed by Iovino-Ortiz (23-3), Manes (16-3), Brian Bannon (17-4), Marchetti (16-4), Grace (20-5), Joe Bannon (17-5), and DeLorio (17-6).

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