East Wrestling Finishes Non-League Schedule with Big Win Over West Babylon

What started off on a sour note after Sean O'Malley lost a surprising match at 152 pounds for Sachem East, turned into an easy confidence builder for the Arrows.

East (9-4) earned pins in three of the next four matches and walked away with a 57-18 non-league victory against West Babylon at home Wednesday evening.

"You get a couple pins up top like that and it certainly helped us out," said Sachem East head coach Sean O'Hara. "We were in pretty good shape. As the matches wore on in the second and third periods we were stronger. That's where we got the better of them."

O'Malley looked out of sort after losing 8-3 to open the match against Mike Richardson.

"Sean's a competitor and he hates to lose," O'Hara said. "He's not where he wants to be right now. We're going to have to put some extra work in and get better. Hopefully he'll peak at the right time and he'll be ready to go when counties come around."

Rob Cedar earned a 5-2 decision against Charles Doherty in the 160-pound match to tie the score 3.

Zac Nobre and Mike Marchello picked up back-to-back pins at 171 and 215, respectively, and West Babylon forfeited the 189-pound bout, giving Sachem a 21-3 lead early in the match.

O'Hara opted to forfeit the 285-pound slot. West Babylon's Reggie Robinson, who took third in the 215 class at counties last year, would have had the upper hand. Sachem earned the points back at 96 since the Golden Eagles didn't have anyone to wrestle Doug Iadanza.

West Babylon's only pin of the night came when Steven Lee beat Shane Fuggar at the 1:51 mark in the 103-pound bout.

Conor O'Hara, wrestling at 112, returned the favor, pinning Chris Roberto in 1:41 giving Sachem a 33-15 lead.

Tyler Monsees came out aggressive and pinned Brandon Rodriguez in 2:46 at 119 pounds.

West Babylon again added points when Jorge Borreiro beat Mike Rothbaum, 16-15, in the 125-pound slot, the closest battle of the night. Borreiro, a League IV champion last season at 119, led 11-8 heading into the third period. Rothbaum tied the score at 15, but let him out of a hold and lost by a single point as the buzzer sounded.

Sachem rattled off another 18 points with wins by Anthony Messina (130), Jackson Mordente (135), Billy Merone (140) and Anthony Pistone (145).

Messina won 3-2 over Leiaje Sidberry, who finished third in League IV at 119 pounds last season.  Mordente hammered Jesse White, 16-0, while Merone beat Kerrigan Coyle, 18-5, and Pistone finished up with an 18-2 win over Paul Gernavage.

News & Notes

• Sachem East's first dual meet ever was on Dec. 10, 2004 against West Babylon. The Arrows won, 30-27, and hadn't faced them again until Wednesday evening.
• The Arrows will hit the mat again Dec. 29 at the Massapequa Holiday Tournament. They'll match up with Hauppauge, Connetquot and Massapequa, all very good teams. "It'll be a real good test for us," Sean O'Hara said. "For some of the guys, it will be the best competition they've seen so far."
• This season, Sachem East's record is now 9-4, while all-time the program is 94-40.
• Conor O'Hara is off to a 13-0 start at 112 and has won 48 of his last 51 bouts.
• O'Malley dropped his season record to 11-2 and currently sits at 111 career victories, six behind Chris DiIorio (Class of 2010 - 117), and only 10 behind his brother Danny O'Malley (Class of 2009 – 121).