Brighton Wins Northville Wrestling Tournament

In sports the two best teams usually compete for the title of champion, it happened Saturday at the Todd Schoenheide Challenge at , but only by sheer coincidence.

All six participating teams had preset matches and it just so happened that Brighton and L'Anse Creuse were set to meet in the fifth and final round. Both teams were undefeated in the tournament to that point.

The Bulldogs defeated the Lancers 48-28.

"Most teams seasons start in November, our season started in March," said Brighton coach Sam Amine following the win. "We're a balanced team and we wrestled well today."

Host Northville, which came into the tournament 4-0, won its first match against Dexter decisively 70-12. The Mustangs then lost their next three to the Lancers 63-18, Saline 36-33 and Brighton 66-9, respectively, before defeating Plymouth 38-36 in the final round.

"Everything went well today, we really enjoy hosting this event," Northville coach Bob Boshoven said. "There was a lot of quality wrestling here today." 

Northville wrestler and captain Ian Stirton finished the day with a 5-0 record, he won two of his matches by pin and one via a technical fall. 

Trevor Maresh and Max Mudar each went 4-1 for the Mustangs. 

Saline finished with a 3-2 record, Dexter with an 0-5 record and Plymouth finished at 2-3.

Brighton wrestlers Jordan Amine, who is ranked fourth in the state in the 103-pound class, and Evan Hoshaw, who is ranked sixth in the state at the 125-pound class, each went 5-0 at the tournament. 

The Lancers took an early 16-6 lead in the final with wins by Scott Maynard, Eric Dunlap and Erik Winnega, who is the seventh-ranked wrestler in the state at 145 pounds. However, Brighton battled back following a technical decision by Brandon Hill, and pins by Andy White and Vince Tkae, to take a one-point lead, 23-22.

Next up were the 215-pound and heavyweight classes. Brighton was without its two normal starters at those spots and lost both matches by way of pin giving the lead back to the Lancers, 28-23.

"We were without our normal (2)15-pounder and our heavyweight," Amine added. "We used freshman Nick Picano at heavyweight and he won us a few matches. ... He showed a lot of heart today."

Trailing by five and lacking momentum, Jordan Amine, who is Sam's son, took the mat against Tate Vineyard. Amine, a sophomore, threw Vineyard and was able to pin him less than a minute into the contest. All of the momentum and the lead then went to the Bulldogs for good.

"Our upper weights did good in the finals," Jordan Amine said. "But all of us at the lower weights knew we had to step-up if we wanted to win."

Brighton wrestlers Jackson Pizzo and Dan Koenig won the next two matches by way of pin and Hoshaw put the nail in the coffin.

Hoshaw held a 5-1 lead in the match over Nick Metcalfe, and finished him off with 59.2 seconds left in the second period to ensure a Brighton victory. CJ Brish, of Brighton, won the final match 13-5. 

"We had to build momentum and keep it going," Hoshaw said. "I was looking for the pin, the score was close and we needed it to win."

Brighton is now 14-0 on the season in dual matches.

The Mustangs will look to rebound on Wednesday when they take on Farmington High School at 5:30 p.m.