Navy’s dramatic comeback falls just short
Smith narrowly misses pin in final bout for Mids
Trailing archrival Army by five points with one match left, Navy not only needed 141-pounder Kaemen Smith to upset a nationally-ranked opponent, it also needed the sophomore to post a pin.
With a minute left in the bout, it appeared Smith had pulled off the improbable and lifted the Midshipmen to one of their most dramatic victories in the storied rivalry.
The partisan crowd at raucous Alumni Hall certainly thought Smith had scored a fall against No. 31 Matt Williams. However, the referee didn’t agree and the end result was a painful one-point defeat for the Mids.
Navy lost three straight bouts to start the Star match and could not fully recover in suffering a heartbreaking 18-17 loss to Army. That brought an end to the Midshipmen’s three-match winning streak with the Star on the line.
Army got off to a great start sparked by a decisive 11-1 victory in the opening match at 157 pounds. Army senior Nate Lukez had little problem dominating Navy freshman Jonathan Ley to give the Black Knights a 4-0 lead right out of the gate.
Navy expected to bounce right back at 165 pounds with arguably its best wrestler taking the mat. Senior Andrew Cerniglia entered the match ranked 16th with an impressive 19-3 record. Army countered with talented freshman Gunner Filipowicz, who was ranked No. 23.
The freshman was more aggressive from the outset, scoring a takedown late in the first period to take a 3-0 lead. Cerniglia countered with a reversal before the end of the period and his escape early in the second tied the score.
Filipowicz recorded an early reversal in the final period to take a 5-3 lead. Cerniglia was able to escape to get back within one and had a shot for a takedown, but Filipowicz was able to sprawl on the edge of the mat to hold on for the 5-4 upset — much to the dismay of Navy head coach Carey Kolat.
Army sent its best wrestler, 15th-ranked Ben Pasiuk, out to face Navy plebe Danny Wask in the 174-pound bout. Wask, who is ranked No. 27, earned a 7-3 victory, quieting Alumni Hall and putting Army ahead 10-0.
Navy senior David Key (12-11) has endured a somewhat disappointing season to date. However, Key provided a lift at 184 pounds by scoring a 4-1 decision against Dillon Sheehy. Toward the end of the first period, Key picked Sheehy off the mat and drove him back down for two points. Sheehy tried to escape, but Key violently threw him back to the mat — much to the delight of the now awakened crowd.
Junior Cael Crebs added to the momentum for the Mids with an impressive 7-1 victory over Army sophomore Wolfgang Frable at 197 pounds, cutting the deficit to 10-6.
Senior heavyweight Grady Greiss took the mat against Army freshman Lucas Stoddard looking for bonus points but ended up in overtime.
About 20 seconds into the extra session, Griess put Stoddard on his back for a takedown and near fall for a 7-2 victory that pulled Navy within one at 10-9.
However, Navy’s threebout winning streak came to an abrupt end as Army 125-pounder Ethan Berginc (No. 32) made quick work of junior Dayton DelViscio in a technical fall.
The 133-pound weight class featured the third match-up between ranked wrestlers as Navy sophomore Brendan Ferretti (No. 33) faced Army freshman Braden Basile (No. 31).
Ferretti came out more aggressively and held a 4-1 lead in the final seconds of the second period. That is when, in Kolat’s opinion, Ferretti got careless. With the clock close to running out with the wrestlers in an apparent stalemate position, Basile managed to shift his arm slightly and score a takedown.
“[Ferretti] shouldn’t have stopped wrestling. He went into hang-on mode. And when you go into hang-on mode, bad things happen,” Kolat said. “Great teams wrestle in every position without hesitation. Brenden went into hang-on mode and it burned him.”
Basile picked up an escape in the third period to pull out a 5-4 victory to give the Black Knights a seemingly insurmountable 18-9 advantage with only two bouts left. That put the Midshipmen in the position of needing Smith or Josh Koderhandt to pull off a fall, which Kolat believed was quite possible.
Koderhandt helped the cause with a workmanlike 13-3 major decision of Logan Brown at 133 pounds. That result cut the deficit to 18-13 and meant Smith had to get a pin in the final bout. Had the match ended in an 18-18 deadlock, Kolat said Navy would have won via tiebreaker.
Smith (19-9) was all over Williams (21-6) early in the match, scoring a pair of takedowns to take an early 6-2 lead. Smith held a 7-6 lead early in the third period, and that is when things got very exciting in Alumni Hall. Smith turned two takedowns into near falls in the final minute to blow the match open from a points perspective. However, a major decision or even a technical fall would not be enough.
What happened following the second near fall is what Navy wrestling fans will be talking about for the next year. Smith put Williams on his back, and from multiple angles it appeared the sophomore had properly executed a pin.
“On our side, we saw him flat,” said Kolat, who felt the referee missed the fall because he was on the opposite side and out of position to see that both of Williams’ shoulders were touching the mat.
A long and loud chorus of boos were directed at the officials following the final bout, which Smith won by 17-9 major decision.
“I just told my guys that bad calls happen in matches all the time,” said Kolat, who felt the match should not have come down to the final bout.
“We let this dual get away from us. Army was well prepared. We knew this was going to be a tight dual and huge credit to Kaemen Smith for nearly pulling off a huge pin at the end,” Kolat said. “I told the team afterward to let this one sting.”