Canfield wrestlers rally to win own tournament

By Eric Hamilton

The Cardinals won eight of the final 11 events against Southeast for the title.

CANFIELD — Trailing Southeast 10-0 after the first three matches in the finals of their own holiday wrestling tournament, Canfield found itself in need of a few victories.

The Cardinals got a whole lot more than that.

Canfield won eight of the final 11 matches — including seven by pinfall — to beat Southeast 47-28 and win the team championship Saturday at the Canfield Holiday Duals.

“It was a total team effort,” Canfield coach Dean Conley said. “I mean even the JV kids were doing their part by running the scoreboards and the crowd was great, too. It’s always a battle when we wrestle Southeast and to beat them in the finals tonight was great.

“Our lightweights did a great job for us and we count on them in every match, but today everyone stepped up when we needed them to. The difference in the match was at 171 — Phil was able to win and get the pin and that gave us some momentum.”

Southeast led 16-6 before Aron Brenner pinned his opponent to cut the deficit to 16-12. Canfield took its first lead of the match when Phil Dastolfo came through with a pin to put the Cards ahead 18-16.

Two straight Southeast victories gave the Pirates a 28-24 advantage, heading into the final four bouts.

That’s when Canfield went on a pin parade. Lightweights Braylin Bellino (103), Alex Benedict (112) and Dylan Frost (119) all put their opponents on their backs and build a 42-28 Cardinal lead.

Rob Reed finished things off with a major decision victory at 125 pounds.

“I knew the match was close and we were starting to fall behind, so I wanted to wrestle my last match as hard as I could,” said Dastolfo, who finished 3-2 on the day. “We haven’t beaten Southeast too many times through the years, so it’s nice to win today. This was a good way to start our home schedule.”

Pacing Canfield by winning all five of their matches were Bellino (103), Benedict (112) and Cody Hartman (189). Frost (119), Reed (125), Leo Daprile (130), Lucas Daprile (135) and Vince Dangerfield (145) each finished 4-1.

Canfield advanced to the finals match with Southeast by defeating Hubbard (53-20), South Range (61-11), Revere (63-17) in pool matches and Tallmadge (64-12) in the semifinals.

There were a total of eight teams divided into two pools for the event. Both Canfield (5-0) and Southeast (4-1) entered the finals undefeated.

Hubbard (4-1) finished third by defeating Tallmadge 51-24 in the third and fourth place bout. Rootstown (3-2) took fifth by beating Revere (1-4), while South Range 1-4) finished seventh with a victory over Conneaut (1-4).

The Eagles’ 4-1 finish was a disappointment for coach Scott Thompson, who was forced to juggle his lineup because several wrestlers failed to make weight. Despite the disadvantage, Hubbard was able to defeat everyone but Canfield.

“It’s very disappointing,” Thompson said. “We had problems making weight, so we had kids wrestling up one or two weight classes. This is one of the best teams as far as talent that I’ve ever had, but I have to get them mentally ready to wrestle.

“This was a good wake-up call for the kids. Once we get everyone ready to go, there’s no reason why we can’t compete for the entire league [EOWL] title. We’re strong from 103 to 215.”

Robbie Lias was Hubbard’s top performer, going 5-0 at 215 pounds. His season record is 10-0. Nick Nadeja was 3-2 at 135 pounds, wrestling two classes above his regular 125 pounds.

South Range’s Beau Bowden won all five of his matches, including a 5-4 decision in double overtime against Nadeja. The senior won his finals match against Conneaut by forfeit.

“I was disappointed,” South Range coach William Gehring said. “As a team, we didn’t do much worse than I thought, but I expected some better individual performances. We have about 11 kids, so we try for pins because that’s the only way we can win.”

Brookfield competes

WILLOUGHBY — Brookfield High School’s Tyler Thompson, Danny Miller, Jake Underwood and Steve Varga competed in a 10-team wrestling tournament at Willoughby South High School on Saturday.

Miller captured the 145 title with a pair of pins and two technical falls. Thompson, 119, won four matches and finished third. Underwood, 152, had three pins, two losses to place fourth, while Varga, 189, was sixth.