BAINBRIDGE – One night after their tough loss to Chenango Forks, Norwich was back on the mat against another Chenango County powerhouse program, the Bainbridge-Guilford-Afton-Harpursville Bears wrestling team for a non-league match.
BGAH held a 36-33 score with the dual meet once again coming down to the last two bouts of the night.
Facing a similar situation from the night prior, the Tornado’s Max Morris took the mat against BGAH’s Jose Bivar for the 106 pound match.
Determined to win from the start, Morris immediately landed a takedown for the 2-0 lead. With the same lead at the start of the second period, Bivar chose the top position after Morris deferred.
Morris made Bivar pay for his decision, picking up a two point reversal and the 4-0 lead. Right before the period ended, Morris added another two points with a three count near fall to take a commading 6-0 advantage.
In the final two minutes of wrestling, Morris turned his six point lead into a 14-3 major decision win with two takedowns and a five count for three back points.
Bivar was able to pick up his three points in the match with two escapes and a stalling call.
Andrew Brown for Norwich and BGAH’s Wayne Lewis took the mate for the final bout of the meet. With a pin at 1:12 in the first period, Brown secured the win for his team.
The Purple Tornado squad kicked off the meet with an 18-0 lead after Dante Geislinger pinned the Bears Jacob Terpstra in the second period, Nick Glanville’s win by pinfall in the second over BGAH’s Dylan Decker and a forfeit by the Bears at 132 pounds to give Ben Glanville a win.
The 138 pound bout between Norwich’s Izaiah Caballero and Brady Buttice of BGAH provided some excitement to the highly anticipatied meet.
Buttice started the match off with a takedown for two points but Caballero picked up a point late in the first with an escape.
In the second, Caballero picked up the takedown in the early part of the match to take a 3-2 lead. Buttice answered with two escapes in the period to take a 4-3 with one period remaining.
Caballero took the down position to start the match and quickly escaped to tie the score at 4-4.
Later in the period, Buttice took Caballero down to the mat to earn two points and the top position back.
Late in the third, Caballero escaped Buttice’s grasp to trail by one point. With short time left, the Norwich wrestler needed to land a shot but Buttice was able to hold off any attempts as he picked up the 6-5 decision win and the first three points on the scoreboard for the Bears.
Brody Oleksak added six to the BGAH’s tally with a pin in the first period of the 145 pound bout, taking Ashton Jenkins of the Tornado down to the mat and holding the position until the 1:30 mark.
Norwich’s Mikey Squires responded for his team as he pinned the Bears’ Austin Smith at 1:02 after his early takedown.
The 160 pound match of the meet saw BGAH’s Zach Gardepe take down Keegan Wright of the Tornado to start the first period.
With no score change in the second period, Gardepe took his 2-0 lead into the final period of the bout.
Wright made his move in the third as Gardepe took the down position to start the period, putting the BGAH wrestler to three straight five counts, swinging the two point lead to a 9-2 decision win.
At 170 pounds, BGAH’s Haiden Lewis took on Norwich’s Angel Francis. Lewis jumped out to five point lead in the first period with a take down and a nearfall five count.
As it was Francis’ choice for position to start the second, the Tornado wrestler took the top. Lewis was able to reverse out of it, adding another two points for the 7-0 lead. The Bears’ wrestler added a five count for three more points but Francis wasn’t going to go down easy.
Francis made his move to reverse back into the top position and added an near fall, closing Lewis’ lead down to five points with one period left to wrestle.
As Lewis took the top to start the final two minutes of the bout, Francis escaped to cut the score to 10-6 with less than a minute left. As no points were added in the remaining time of the match, Lewis earned a decision win but the Norwich 170 pounder battled to avoid the pin.
BGAH’s Shane Hoover took a forfeit win at 182 pounds to make the score 27-18 and his teammate Austin Eggleston added a pinfall win over the Tornado’s Dakota Hall after just 19 seconds into the 195 pound bout, adding another six points to the Bears score.
Rocco Arduini’s forfeit win at 220 pounds gave BGAH their first lead of the night at 30-27.
Norwich’s Tyler Rice quickly took the lead back with his pin in the second period after putting the Bears’ Timmy James to the mat.
With another forfeit going to BGAH’s Joey Florence at 99 pounds, the Bears took a three point lead for the second time in the match but Morris’ major decision win and Brown’s pin gave Norwich the win.
Both teams will be in action again after the holiday as they attend the Windsor Christmas Tournament on Thursday and Friday. Norwich placed first at the tournament last year with BGAH coming in second. Action beings early Thursday morning.
BGAH 36, Norwich 43
Match started at 120
120: Dante Geislinger N fall Jacob Terpstra BGAH 2:17; 126: Nick Glanville N fall Dylan Decker BGAH 3:00; 132: Ben Glanville N won by forfeit; 138: Brady Buttice BGAH dec. Izaiah Caballero N 6-5; 145: Brody Oleksak BGAH fall Ashton Jenkins N 1:30; 152: Mikey Squires N fall  Austin Smith BGAH 1:02; 160: Keegan Wright N dec. Zach Gardepe BGAH 9-2; 170: Hayden Lewis BGAH dec. Angel Francis N 10-6; 182: Shane Hoover BGAH won by forfeit; 195: Austin Eggleston BGAH fall Dakota Hall N :19; 220: Ricci Arduini BGAH won by forfeit; 285:Tyler Rice N fall Timmy James BGAH 2:39; 99: Joey Florence BGAH won by forfeit; 106: Max Morris N maj. dec. Jose Bivar BGAH 14-3; 113: Andrew Brown N fall Wayne Lewis BGAH 1:42
Ref. Jake Armstrong