Fox Lane Impresses at Dual-Meet Championship
as he wrestles at 126 pounds in the semifinals of the Division I dual meet
championship.
By Tony Pinciaro
There is nothing sly about the Fox Lane varsity wrestling team through the first two weeks of the 2017-18 season.
The Foxes have asserted themselves as the top Division I (large school) team in Section 1 after winning the Section 1 Division I Dual-Meet Championship. The Foxes followed it up by going 7-0 and winning the Tony Carlucci Dual-Meet Tournament held at SUNY-Purchase. Fox Lane also went 5-0 in winning the Ossining Dual-Meet Tournament the opening weekend of the season. The Foxes are currently 17-0 this season.
Seeded seventh entering the Section 1 Dual-Meet Championship, Fox Lane defeated Arlington in a quarterfinal match, then followed it with a victory over Tappan Zee in a semifinal and a 47-21 triumph over top-seeded North Rockland in the final.
In the Arlington match, senior Matt Grippi registered his 200th varsity win.
“We are basically a young team with only three senior starters,” Fox Lane coach Anthony Rodrigues said. “We have an eighth-grader, four to five freshmen, two sophomores and three juniors starting. Our kids have won a lot of close matches and we have done a good job of getting bonus points and pins.”
Rodrigues noted that against North Rockland, Fury Scaglio and Griffen Zegras both bumped up a weight class and had pivotal wins in the 182- and 195-pound bouts, respectively. He also pointed out that Matias Rivera had a huge win, 5-3, over North Rockland’s 2017 state-qualifier, C. J. McMonegal.
“Our team is red hot,” said Grippi, who will attend North Carolina State in September and continue wrestling. “All of the hard work that we put in at Iowa Style Wrestling this offseason is showing and I couldn’t be any happier with our performance.
“Receiving my 200th win was a nice accomplishment, but out of this season I’m looking for one thing, a state title.”
Fox Lane defeated a pair of Section 9 powers at the Carlucci Tournament. The Foxes beat Monroe-Woodbury, 37-34, in the semifinals and then manhandled Warwick, 49-24, in the championship match.
Johnny Santos, the 2017 Section 1 Division I 195-pound runner-up, eighth-grader Jake Hoffman and Grippi all went 7-0. Quincy Downes, Matias Rivera and Amos Rivera each fnished 6-1.
Along with his team’s off-season work, Rodrigues credits his son/assistant coach, Steven, a four-time Section 1 champion, state champion and Division I all-American, for the team’s hot start. Steven returned home after one year as Stanford’s assistant wrestling coach.
“Steven has stayed with a system that we work on every day,” Rodrigues said. “Steven is very attention to detail with technical aspects of wrestling. And he works very hard in the room. All of the kids have completely bought in and listen to him.”
Meanwhile, another local team is also off to a strong start. Pleasantville advanced to the final of the Section 1 Division II Dual-Meet Championship, but Pearl River came away with a 38-32 victory in an excellent match.
The Panthers defeated fellow perennial Division II power Putnam Valley in a semifinal to earn a match with Pearl River.
“Against Putnam Valley, we gutted out some tough wins against strong wrestlers and won where we needed to,” Pleasantville coach Bob Bernarducci said. “After the Pearl River match, I reminded the team that the season is a marathon and not a sprint. We want to wrestle tough teams during the season to make us tougher for sectionals. The Pearl River match this year was similar to last year and we were in it until the end.”
Pleasantville wrestled in the Tony Carlucci Dual-Meet Tournament and came away with a sixth-place finish. Nayshawn Marks and Victor Perlleshi both went 5-0. Len Balducci and Jayden Kammer finished 4-1.
Bernarducci cited Perlleshi for two quality wins – against an all-section wrestler from Tappan Zee and a Springfield Central (Ma.) grappler who placed second in the Massachusetts State Championships.
“My team is probably about where I thought we would be at this point of the season,” Bernarducci said. “We have some very consistent lightweight wrestlers, including Nayshawn Marks at 106, who is 9-0, and Len Balducci, who is 12-1, Aiden Canfield at 120 and 126, Michael Balducci, who has filled in at both 113 and 120, Chris May at 132, and Victor Perlleshi, who is 11-2 at both 132 and 138. Nolan Egan, Kenyon Marks and Keon Ansari have done a good job in the upper weights.
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