SUMMARY
Lockport Wrestling, ranked 20th nationally by InterMat, has started the 2016-2017 season off just the way the team had hoped. The Porters started the season by picking up back to back wins in the first two days of competition. On Tuesday, Lockport defeated Yorkville High School by a score of 44-19, then rolled through West Aurora on Wednesday, 58-9.
Lockport vs. Yorkville
Tuesday night marked a first for Lockport - the first head to head matchup with Oster brothers as the head coaches of their respective teams. Jake Oster, 2004 state champion, and 2005 graduate of Lockport, took over as head coach for Yorkville this season, having served as an assistant for the past few years.
The dual started at 106, where Matt Ramos, a double All-American at Fargo this summer, came out and picked up a fall. Fellow Greco-Roman All-American, last year's starting 106 pounder, Anthony Molton followed suit with a fall of his own at 113. Senior Sal Farbo got the start at 120 pounds, picking up a well-earned 8-6 decision, while Garret Golob took the mat for Lockport and earned a 10-1 major decision at 126 pounds. It wasn't until 132 that Yorkville picked up a win, when Joe Roberts picked up a 3-1 win over Lockport's Brendan Ramsey, scoring a takedown late in the third off of a scramble to take the lead. Brandon Ramos, who recently committed Old Dominion University, started his senior campaign with a controlling fall in the later part of the second period, putting Lockport up 25-3.
At 145, Matt Mahalik got the spot start, but found himself down big early. He did a good job to neutralize this and prevent it from getting worse, but couldn't convert any of his own attacks into points, dropping the match by major decision. Lockport's Zach Reese took the mat at 152, the first time in his career as the expected full-time starter this season, having been stuck behind Shayne Oster during his first two years of high school, and the junior came up with a 13-2 major decision. Malik Daghash made his varsity debut, filling in at 160, and picked up a pinfall victory in an exciting, high-scoring match, pushing Lockport's lead to 35-7.
Lockport senior Nick Dado would drop an extremely close 4-3 decision at 170, but fellow senior Payton Fernandes came back with a quick 0:35 second fall. Junior Yousif Salah earned a 6-2 decision at 195, giving Lockport a 44-10 lead. Senior Dan Stojsavljevic, starting at 220, fought hard but lost a close 5-3 decision, and closing out the night, freshman Brandon Baker's high school debut at 285 ended in a pinfall victory for his opponent from Yorkville.
Lockport vs. West Aurora
The Porters followed up a good win on Tuesday with an absolutely dominating victory at West Aurora on Wednesday. Starting at 138, Lockport won the first seven matches of the dual to jump out to a huge 36-0 lead. Brandon Ramos (138), Malik Daghash (160), and Payton Fernandes (182) all won by fall, while Baylor Fernandes (145), Zach Reese (152), and Nick Dado (170) each won by technical fall. Yousif Salah had the only decision win of the first half, earning a hard fought 7-6 decision over West Aurora's Stephen Norman in an exciting back and forth matchup.
Lockport dropped the next two bouts. Dan Stojsavljevic (220) came up a bit short in a 5-1 loss, and freshman heavyweight Brandon Baker dropped a heartbreaker by a score of 3-1 in overtime. Matt Ramos (106) and Anthony Molton (113) each recorded second-period pins, with Ramos's securing the team victory a mere 8 matches into the dual. Garrett Golob (126) picked up his second win over the season, while Brendan Ramsey (132) earned his first win this year, both via technical fall.
The match of the night came at 120, with Lockport freshman James Pierandozzi making his high school debut against West Aurora's top wrestler, senior Isaac Jacquez. Pierandozzi, a 2-time IKWF champion and 2-time IKWF runner-up, came out a aggressively against Jacquez, firing off several shots in the first period. Jacquez, a three-time IHSA State Qualifier who placed 5th in 2015, and came up one match short of placing in 2016 (losing to Lockport's Abdullah Assaf, actually), was able to fend off Pierandozzi's attacks through a few scrambles and a stalemate or two, and the match headed into the second period tied 0-0. Pierandozzi started the second on bottom, and earned an escape halfway through the period to go up 1-0. A scoreless remainder of the period had Jacquez down 1-0 going into the third, where he started on bottom. Jacquez worked his way nearly out, and the two got into a small scramble, which Jacquez came out on top of, earning a reversal to take the 2-1 lead. Jacquez, protecting his lead, rode for about 30 seconds before being hit for a warning for stalling with about 10 seconds left. Pierandozzi nearly escaped following the restart, but time expired, and Jacquez came out on top, 2-1.
BOX SCORES
Lockport 44, Yorkville 19
106: Matt Ramos LTHS fall Justin Cole YHS, 6:03 / 6-0
113: Anthony Molton LTHS fall Justin Hamer YHS, 1:08 / 12-0
120: Sal Farbo LTHS dec. Julian Vasquez YHS, 8-6 / 15-0
126: Garrett Golob LTHS maj. dec. Kerigan McKenna YHS, 10-1 / 19-0
132: Joe Roberts YHS dec. Brendan Ramsey LTHS, 3-1 / 19-3
138: Brandon Ramos LTHS fall Brett Stauffenberg YHS, 3:40 / 25-3
145: Tyler Toney YHS maj. dec. Matt Mahalik LTHS, 10-1 / 25-7
152: Zach Reese LTHS maj. dec. Zack Katula YHS, 13-2 / 29-7
160: Malik Daghash LTHS fall Ben Stemmet YHS, 4:01 / 35-7
170: Nick Stemmet YHS dec. Nick Dado LTHS, 4-3 / 35-10
182: Payton Fernandes LTHS fall Kevin Vivaldo YHS, 0:35 / 41-10
195: Yousif Salah LTHS dec. Brady Fisher YHS, 6-2 / 44-10
220: Brandon Lee YHS dec. Dan Stojsavljevic LTHS, 5-3 / 44-13
285: Ryan Morris YHS fall Brandon Baker LTHS, 0:27 / 44-19
Lockport 58, West Aurora 9
138: Brandon Ramos LTHS fall Johnny Acevedo WA, 5:44 / 6-0
145: Baylor Fernandes LTHS tech. fall Juan Carrillo WA, 19-4 / 11-0
152: Zach Reese LTHS tech. fall Aaron Medlin WA, 16-1 / 16-0
160: Malik Daghash LTHS fall Andre Jones WA, 1:39 / 22-0
170: Nick Dado LTHS tech. fall Jordan Wellington WA, 22-6 / 27-0
182: Payton Fernandes LTHS fall Thomas Yarbrough WA, 4:44 / 33-0
195: Yousif Salah LTHS dec. Stephen Norman WA, 7-6 / 36-0
220: Brian Mercado WA dec. Dan Stojsavljevic LTHS, 5-1 / 36-3
285: Josh Mayhew WA dec. Brandon Baker LTHS, 3-1 OT / 36-6
106: Matt Ramos LTHS fall Reid Medlin WA, 2:59 / 42-6
113: Anthony Molton LTHS fall Omar Zavalan WA, 2:34 / 48-6
120: Isaac Jacquez WA dec. James Pierandozzi LTHS, 2-1 / 48-9
126: Garrett Golob LTHS tech. fall Eddie Garcia WA, 16-0 / 53-9
132: Brendan Ramsey LTHS tech. fall Anthony Malczyk WA, 18-2 / 58-9
PHOTOS
Head on over to the Lockport Wrestling Section of Coach Sealy's Website to find pictures from each of these duals.
You may want to bookmark that gallery link - odds are you'll pop back there this season.
Note from Sealy:
Watermarks. They are something I get asked about every other week or so. I figured I would add a quick note here and very briefly explain them.
Essentially, it all comes down to money, but not in a greedy way. Like many other coaches, I am a volunteer. That’s something that I’m fine with – I’d be in the room and at every meet and tournament regardless of if I’m being paid to be there (at least at this point in life). I love this sport, this program, and I get just as much enrichment from being a part of it as the wrestlers do.
The watermarks are on the photos because they deter people from copying them, and encourage people to purchase them (at a very low cost) on the website. Purchased photos do not have any watermarks on them. But, to be clear, this isn’t for greed – it isn’t even for profit. To take high quality photos, some things, such as the lenses I use, had to be bought/upgraded specifically for wrestling. Thus, any money I may earn from the sales of the photos go towards paying off what I had spent on the wrestling-specific gear. The camera is something I'd use anyway, so the photo proceeds wouldn't go towards the camera itself, for example.
If and when I break even on those costs, I plan to make all of the Lockport Wrestling photos entirely free and downloadable to everyone without any watermark at all (or maybe a small one so people will know who took such an awesome picture).
If you ever wondered about these, hopefully your questions have been answered. If not, feel free to ask me any time you see me! I’ll be the guy with the camera… and the magnificent hair.