Scotties out-point Blue Streaks on the mat for second victory
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> After the Ballston Spa wrestling team graduated an eye-popping 10 seniors last year, including current North Carolina State grapplers Tyler Barnes and Jake Cook, the remainder of the Suburban Council should have breathed a sigh of relief heading into this season.
But it appears that Scotties Coach Harvey Staulters made a trip to the fountain of youth and his young guns powered their way to a 41-28 win on the road at Saratoga Springs Wednesday night for their second win of the season.
“We’re a young bunch, they’re scrappy,” Coach Harvey Staulters said. “We have about 33 kids in the room and 25 of them are eighth-, ninth or 10th graders.
“They’re thinkers; we have good leadership with our seniors, so that’s helping us out with our youngsters. The youngsters, they just believe they should win, so it’s been
nice.”
Down early, Gennaro DeRobertis was down by six points in the second period before he reversed Saratoga’s Sydney Jorgensen and put him on his back for a pin at 3:22 of their 126-pound bout, knotting the match at 10 points apiece.
The Ballston Spa freshman had a rough start to his night even before stepping onto the mat.
“I got a bloody nose before practice, it was very bad,” Gennaro DeRobertis said. “We plugged it up right before my match; I just went in and did my thing.
“I just waited until my chance and I took it, head and arm, put him on his back and got the pin.”
The key win inspired DeRobertis and the rest of the Scottie’s underclassmen.
“It really makes me think that I belong on varsity,” DeRobertis said. “I can really help the team out with points.”
Saratoga would then see Maxim Chuckrow and Eric Griskowitz each earn decisions for a six-point lead, 16-10 before Ballston Spa rallied with two decisions of its own, Ramel Brooks at 145 and Jovie Acacio at 152, creating a deadlock at 16 points each.
Brooks overcame Patrick Spatafora, 9-4, that saw both wrestlers exhausted at the end of the three twominute sessions.
“I normally shoot a double (leg takedown) and then he caught me with my doubles and I just kept on shooting doubles and he kept on catching me with them,” Ballston Spa’s Ramel Brooks said. “I was just rapidly shooting and he kept on catching me so it was rough. I had to switch up my game plan and try to get points some other way.”
A technical pin fall by Ballston’s James Prastio gave the Scotties some breathing room at 160 before Peter Hansen earned a pin at 170 for the 27-16 lead with Colby Harblin following up with a dramatic 3-2 win at 182.
A takedown by Saratoga’s Devin Crowe with 18 seconds left in the third at the edge of the circle was awarded and then quickly waived off by the referee, putting both wrestlers back in the center of the mat in the neutral position in the waning seconds. Crowe was unable to come up with another key move in the final 20.
Saratoga’s Brandt Robinson delivered a 33 second pin at 195 and Doug Cooper followed with a pin at 1:49 at 220 to cut the Ballston lead 30-22 before Section 2 heavyweight champion Jake Stangle earned a pin in 54 seconds.
Ballston Spa lightweight Nick Palso closed out the night with a technical pin fall with 17 seconds left in his match.
“We didn’t match up with them,” Saratoga Coach Kris West said. “They’re inexperienced guys wrestled kind of our inexperienced guys and they were a little bit better in those weight classes.
“126 (pounds) was a match we’re winning by six, then he gets rocked and pinned, that’s a big swing in the match and then 182, one of our better guys, his guy was a sectional place finisher, our guy was and that’s a one-point match that we could have had on the close call on the edge and that’s the difference in the match right there.”
The Blue Streaks fell in the season opener against former Suburban Council South Division powerhouse Columbia before capturing the Mohonasen Tournament over the weekend.
“It’s a tough start, Columbia and Ballston Spa, two of the top schools, but we’ve got some of the tough teams out of the way early on,” West said. “We just have to get our younger guys more developed; they have to start picking up some points for us in these dual meets if we’re going to have a solid year.
BALLSTON SPA 41, SARATOGA 28
106: Nick Palso (BSSH) over Antonio Encarnacion (SSSH) (MD 21-8) 113: Griffin Biviano (SSSH) over Owen Walsh (BSSH) (MD 14-6) 120: Zeph Watkins (SSSH) over Evan Rurycz (BSSH) (Fall 3:15) 126: Gennaro DeRobertis (BSSH) over Sydney Jorgensen (SSSH) (Fall 3:22) 132: Maxim Chuckrow (SSSH) over Chris Grace (BSSH) (Dec 11-4) 138: Eric Griskowitz (SSSH) over Amir Abdellatif (BSSH) (Dec 7-2) 145: Ramel Brooks (BSSH) over Patrick Spatafora (SSSH) (Dec 9-4) 152: Jovie Acacio (BSSH) over Jake DeLuca (SSSH) (Dec 9-2) 160: James Prastio (BSSH) over David Wilk (SSSH) (TF 17-2 0:00) 170: Peter Hansen (BSSH) over Spencer Cornell (SSSH) (Fall 2:40) 182: Colby Harblin (BSSH) over Devin Crowe (SSSH) (Dec 3-2) 195: Brant Robinson (SSSH) over Darrien Insogna (BSSH) (Fall 0:58) 220: Doug Cooper (SSSH) over Eric Brenan (BSSH) (Fall 2:15) 285: Jacob Stangle (BSSH) over Ian Van Dyke (SSSH) (Fall 0:36) 99: Connor Gregory (BSSH) over Kyle Griskowitz (SSSH) (TF 16-1 0:00)