Rocky River’s Alan McClain finds himself in a battle against Bay freshman Adam Tepper during last Thursday night’s West Shore Conference match. McClain eventually won the 112 match, 10-4. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

Up and coming Rockets no match for River
By Jim Horvath
Sports
Published Feb. 3, 2010

On the mats last Thursday at Rocky River, there was something different as visiting Bay came in to take on the Pirates.

There were wrestlers. Lots of wrestlers.

“This is going to be different than what we’ve had in the past with them,” quipped River head coach Eric Tuokkola as he and his staff readied the gym for the Senior Night match.

Different indeed. There were 10 junior varsity matches scheduled prior to the varsity match. On top of that, 13 of those 14 varsity bouts were manned and ready to go. Only a disciplinary action by first year Bay coach Ryan Cover prevented the Rockets from filling that one spot.

Such hasn’t always been the case for the Bay program, which has 31 wrestlers competing this season.

“That was the first thing we talked about from Day One – getting kids out for wrestling,” Cover said prior to his team’s 51-19 loss to the Pirates.

“There are a lot of kids in that building who had wrestled before, but left the program for one reason or another,” Cover said. “We wanted to get them back in the room. We started out with 24 kids, and as the days went by kids kept coming in.”

Having 31 wrestlers between the varsity and junior varsity is a far cry from the 12-14 wrestlers from last season. And with 15 freshman, four sophomores and six juniors on the roster, the foundation is there for the future, Cover said.

“We’ve got some more young guys that will come into the program next year,” said Cover, who joined the youth wrestling program four years ago and spent the past two years coaching at the middle school.

“We want to be competitive and compete for the West Shore Conference title year in and year out,” he said. “I don’t see any reason why that can’t happen. We’re not here to just build a one-year wonder. We want to be in it every year.”

Last Thursday was the latest test for the youthful Rockets. They had their moments, but the veteran Pirates proved to be too much to handle at this stage of the game.

“We had a tough go of things tonight,” Cover said afterwards. “But we had some successes out there, and you can see signs that their hard work is paying off.

“Tonight also shows our guys where they need to be. River has a great program, and they’re where we want to be,” he added.

The Pirates, now 7-4 in dual matches and third in the WSC at 4-2, got off to a 5-0 lead when junior Matt Mahoney raised his season record to 19-5 with his 19-3 technical fall win over Bay junior Nick Dorsey. The lead went to 8-0 when River junior James Hollo scored a 9-5 decision over Bay senior Anton Glynias.

Bay struck quickly and got back into it when junior Daniel Rehor pinned River sophomore Brennen Koklauner in 1:05. But the Pirates returned the favor as senior Charlie Yingling raised his record to 16-9 with a pin of senior Wesley Nelson in 5:18. At 152, the Rockets got another win as freshman Joe Kubinski took an 11-6 decision from River sophomore Martin Gallagher.

The two teams then traded pins. River’s Andrew Brown pinned Bay freshman Steve Burns in 3:33 in the 160 bout, then Bay junior Tim Hughes pinned River junior Ben Hofecker in 4:55 at 171. That made it 20-15, Pirates.

Bay, however, would get just one more win the rest of the way. Freshman Ben Tepper improved his record to 22-6 with a 15-6 major decision over River sophomore Austin Suarez at 103. Sandwiched around that, however, were a forfeit and five more Pirate wins that ended any thoughts of an upset.

At 189, senior Matt Laskowski raised his record to 18-2 with a quick pin (1:23) over Bay’s Rhett LaRiccia. In the heavyweight match, River senior Teddy Keith moved to 21-1 with a pin in 1:01 against Andrew Stylski. Then at 112, junior Alan McClain got another win for the Pirates with his 10-4 decision over Adam Tepper.

River closed out the match in a flourish. Junior John Luciano scored a 12-3 major decsion over freshman Tyler Seablod, then senior Patrick Kilbane pinned freshman Brandon Farnham in 1:18 in the 125 contest.

“I definitely think we’re starting to peak,” Tuokkola said. “Our lineup is more set now, and we’re getting people where they need to be. I think we’re in good shape heading into the tournament.”

The Pirates will travel to Fairview tomorrow night in their final WSC meet of the season. The Rockets will host Avon in their Senior Night, with junior varsity action beginning at 6:30 p.m.