Thin Lineup Hurts Cougar Grapplers

The wrestling lineup is feeling the effects of injuries and illness more and more as the season progresses, as head coach Brian Cassera has seen his group inside the walls of the Cougar wrestling room dwindle from 30 wrestlers early in the season, to just 15 heading into Thursday’s match.

That lack of depth, coupled with inexperience littered throughout the lineup, Hurt Chatham in Thursday night's 59-16 loss to Madison, as the Cougars offered up two forfeits, spotting Madison a 12-0 lead from the start.

“We have a ton of people out of the lineup,” Cassera explained, “but for the guys who wrestled, I didn’t think it was that bad. We’ve got a lot of first year guys and some guys [like] my 113 pounder (Geoffrey Zorn), a second year guy and he goes out there and wrestles great. And then I have some other guys that are taking some time to pick it up.”

Nick Haboj (195 pounds) and Donovan Mantone (215) got Madison out in front early with two pins -following an opening match forfeit from Chatham at 182 pounds- surging the Dodgers to an 18-0 lead.

Tom Penn (285) and Zorn (113) sandwiched wins around another Chatham forfeit at 106 pounds, followed by a first period pin from Sean Cohn at 120 pounds to make the score 24-13.

Senior Patsy Davis put an end to Chatham’s abbreviated win-streak in the following match, recording a technical fall over David Lavin at 126 pounds, giving Madison 16-point lead.

For Davis, the dominant win was his 16th of the season, to go along with only two losses (both of which came in the tournament final matches).

"I think I’m wrestling pretty well, wrestling tough and keeping my pace up," David explained. "That’s my main objective, to keep pushing these kids so they’ll end up breaking."

Up next was the 132-pound matchup between Madison’s John Costa and Chatham’s Dylan Mulcahy. This one appeared to be one of tmost interesting matches of the night from the onset, as Costa found himself facing a deficit before the match even started after the official penalized him one-point for having tape on his headgear.

The penalty would prove to play a big role, as Mulcahy escaped with time expiring in the third period, earning a thrilling 4-3 decision win.

“There’s a new rule this year that you can’t have tape on the headgear,” explained Madison head coach Steve Healey, who said that many officials this season haven’t enforced the rule. “This official came into the locker room and said we’re enforcing the rule, no tape. Johnny had a tiny little piece of tape on his headgear and the guy banged him with a point, which turned out to be monumental.”

But the Dodgers wouldn’t be deterred in their quest for a state tournament birth, recording pins in the next five matches and closing out the night with a 59-16 win.

"The score doesn’t tell the truth, Cassera said, referring to how well his team wrestled. "We don’t have the firepower [Madison does], but we hung in the best we could."