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From
the Duxbury
Clipper Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2000 The Dragon's
Den - Edited and Written by Mike Halloran
Wrestlers
Make Statement in Dominating Scituate Tourney
It
has been close to 20 years since Duxbury was a dominant force in
high school wrestling, but after Saturday's performance at the Scituate
Tournament, those glory days may be returning.
Winning all 14 first-round matches including 12 by pins, the Dragons
dominated the action and sent nine of their 14 wrestlers to the
finals before scoring 121 points for a 37 point win over Rockland
and eight other teams to capture the Tournament Championship.
The field included Hingham and Rockland, last year's Pilgrim Conference
and Scituate Tournament Champions, along with teams from Hanover,
Hull, Scituate, Norwell, Sharon, Thayer and Watertown.
Going
into the season, Coach Bob Watts expected his young squad to make
great strides from last year. Little did he know that those strides
would become gigantic leaps so early in the season.
"You
think that they're at a certain level, but now they're above what
I expected at this point," said Watts.
The
Dragons took four first place finishes from their nine finals' appearances
with juniors Ian McConnaughey (119), Kyle McCarthy (125), Matt Homsy
(145) and sophomore Elmo Roberts (189) leading the way.
While the victories were key to the Dragons' win, the overall team
performance was a source of great pride for Watts.
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"The
team atmosphere here has been great and the kids have really come
together pulling for each other. We set some goals before the year
started and one of them was to win this tournament. It's their hard
work that has gotten them to this point so far."
On
a team that is all underclassmen, Saturday's performance shows just
how formidable the Dragons will be over the next two seasons.
Freshman
Kevin Donahue continues to impress as he bested the #2 seed from
Norwell, Ryan Siu, before advancing to the finals where he dropped
a close 9-6 decision to Paul Robinson of Rockland in the 103-pound
class.
Junior
Jeff Byron also put on a good show at 112, but lost his match in
the finals to Dave Laramee of Rockland 14-6.
McConnaughey,
the #1 seed, dropped Rockland's Brian Sforza 7-4 to win at 119.
McCarthy
showed again why he deserves All-American status, pinning Hingham's
Marc Shainwald at 125.
Sophomore
Scott Kebanoff (130) and Topher Bell (135) finished in fourth-place
in their respective classes, while the surprise of the day went
to freshman Steve Celino in the 140-pound class.
"During
seeding meeting, the 140-lb. class was stacked with wrestlers,"
said Watts. "I told them I thought Steve should be seeded in
the top seven, but because he's a freshman they said that really
hadn't proved anything yet to deserve it."
Forced
to wrestle in a preliminary round for the right to wrestle in the
tournament, Celino promptly showed the seeding committee just what
Watts was trying to convey.
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After
winning his preliminary-round match, Celino went up against #1 seed
Joe Azersky of Sharon and put him on his back in the first 30 seconds
for a 4-0 lead. No longerstrutting like a peacock, Azersky battled
back to tie Celino 4-4, sending the match into overtime. A snap-down
and spin move by Celino brought Azersky to the mat in OT for the victory.
After
a win in his third match of the day, Celino fell to Rockland's Rob
Affleck in the finals 8-4.
"I
jumped so high, I almost hit the roof," said an excited Watts,
after watching Homsy score a 9-8 win over Thayer's Adam Branfman
on a reversal with three seconds left in his 145-pound match.
Junior
Josh Caldwell (150) and sophomore Matt Lanuto (160) advanced to
the finals of their weight classes before losing, while junior Dan
Marconi took fourth place at 171.
Roberts
made quick work of every wrestler he faced on the day, pinning all
three to take the title in the high-profile 189-class.
Junior
Anthony Binsfield took third at 215 and junior Kris Burgos put on
a valiant effort in the heavyweight division for Duxbury.
Tonight
the Dragons travel to Middleboro for a 7pm match against the Sachems.
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