Every match holds a surprise - good or bad - and Wayland wrestling coach Sean Chase got his right at the beginning of last night's Dual County League encounter with Lincoln-Sudbury. It turned out to be a very good one.
After pulling the 103-pound weight class out of a hat, Chase sent Carter Shearer out to face L-S' James Hamilton in the meet's first match. Shearer in turn sent Chase into a smiling mode with a 12-5 decision that started the home Warriors toward a 44-25 victory over the other Warriors, the ones in blue.
"I thought the key for us was the 103 match," said Chase, whose team (16-1, 9-0) can wrap up no worse than a tie for the DCL title with a win at Westford next Wednesday (6 p.m.). "That was a match where we got an unexpected victory. Everywhere else we pretty much knew where we'd get our scoring. But Carter's victory gave us some breathing room up and down the lineup."
"The better team won," said L-S coach Brian Quinn, whose team fell to 9-4 overall and 5-3 in the DCL. "We learned tonight that giving up a pin is huge and not getting one is huge. Wayland got pins where they needed them and we didn't get enough."
After Shearer gave his team a 3-0 lead, L-S' Eric Davis got those three points back with a 10-4 decision over Griffin McGrail at 112.
Nick Murphy gave the visitors their only lead of the night at 6-3 when he won a 7-3 decision over Greg Eng at 119.
Wayland took control of the match by cleaning up between 125 and 140. Max Garelick started things with a 25-10 major decision over Harry Greenhouse at 125.
Bryant Wolf pinned Marc Price at 130 with 16 seconds remaining in the second period, followed quickly by another fall when 135-pounder Eric Lyons put Trevor MacKinnon on his back at 2:22.
The score grew to 26-6 when Sam Boegehal won by injury default at 140 when David Garelick was forced to the sidelines with a shoulder injury.
Jeff Iuliano stemmed the tide temporarily for the visitors when he decisioned Joe Maccinni 10-2 at 145. But two straight Wayland pins ended any hope L-S had of rallying for the win. First, Alex Gupta dropped Jeremy Lasky with 13 seconds remaining in the second period. Then Zach Sperling recorded a 24-second pin over Rob Wilkinson in the 160-pound class for a 32-16 Wayland advantage.
Carter Mode gave L-S three more points at 171 when he won a 9-6 decision over Jean Mbudimbu. But 189-pounder Ben Price put Luke Baldwin on his back at 1:01 for a 38-19 score, and then Abe Freedburg of the hometown Warriors did the same to Dan Connaughton at 215.
The final six points of the match went to L-S when heavyweight Zack Smerlas was awarded a forfeit win.
"Carter came out and wrestled a good match at 103," said Wolf. "He's a freshman with limited experience so that was a real key. Our good guys all had great matches. We really pulled it together. We've had a lot of close matches this year. And every year we wrestled L-S prior to this season the matches have always been close. This is a tough win that we can be proud of."
From the very beginning.
Wayland will wrestle at King Philip in Wrentham tomorrow (10 a.m.). L-S will face another longtime DCL rival next Tuesday when the Warriors travel to Weston for a 4:30 p.m. match.
