P.C. wrestling Rams come off rough learning week looking to turn the Ls into Ws in upcoming matches
January 24, 2024 at 11:17 p.m.
It’s not over until it's over, but the winter season end game is getting close for Port Chester's up-and-coming wrestling Rams.
Bruised, battered, beaten, down but not out, the Rams have been on the ropes but keep coming back for more, learning from the Ls in the past week or so and determined to get better for the experience.
The learning experiences include:
*A lopsided loss to undefeated league champion Ossining in which the Rams won just three of 13 matches.
*A good news/bad news finish in the county championships in which Port Chester had 10 qualifiers in the various weight classes with all wrestling well against Westchester's elite, but nobody scored.
*A team-wide determination to do better on Senior Night Thursday (1/25) so they could send their 10 seniors out in style in their home match against Horace Greeley at 5 p.m.
*A resolve to come on strong in a multiple school wrestling event Saturday (1/27) at Edgemont at 9 a.m.
In the away match against Ossining last Thursday (1/18), the Rams lost 58-12 to the upcounty powerhouse.
Ups and downs
It started off well with Middle Schooler Laila Builes, Port Chester's international jiu jitsu age-group champion in her weight class against all comers, returning from a nearly month-long absence due to illness to win her match by a fall in 1:13 in the 101-pound division. But after that, the Rams kept going down like human bowling pins with Erik Coyt (108) losing by a fall in 4:54, Eduar Polanco (116), falling in 4:04, Julian Estevez (124) losing by a decision and Emmanuel Diaz (138) losing by a fall in 4:23 before Nicholas Pereira (145) stopped the losing streak with an 8-1 decision.
But then Ossining started a new winning stretch with the Rams’ Joao Silva Santos (152) losing by a fall in 3:40, Christopher Gonzalez (160) and Jonathan Tenesaca (170) both falling in 5:27 and 3 minutes flat respectively. Next to fall was Alejandro Velasquez (190) in 23 seconds and Alber Poroj (285) in 2:53 with Jaden Barbour (215), the Rams’ outstanding two-way football lineman, breaking up the streak with a win by fall in 1:49.
"We wrestled well overall, but Ossining is very strong this year and came away as the undefeated league champion," according to Rams head coach Joe Facciola, who knows what it takes to win at that level as a former Rams All-Section light heavyweight (170) back in the day.
The newly goateed Facciola, a physical education instructor in the Port Chester School District, had 10 Ram wrestlers qualify for the county championships last Saturday (1/20) at Yonkers: Anthony Flores and Builes (both 101), Coyt (108), Polanco (116), Pereira (138), Tenesaca and Jacob Lopez (both 160), Velasquez (190), Barbour (215) and Poroj (285).
The county showdown
"It was a tough tournament to qualify for, and even tougher once we got in because we had to wrestle high seeds early on in some weight classes," according to Facciola, who nonetheless felt that the Ram "wrestlers wrestled well against Westchester's better wrestlers. We had a tough time closing the deal in our wrestleback matchups. Jaden Barbour, for example, was a match away from wrestling the 5th/6th match but lost a close match in the consolation-semis against the number 5 seed."
Facciola pointed out that Polanco went into the tournament as the Rams’ highest seed. "He was the second seed and was up 13-3 entering the third period in the quarterfinals, but he ended up losing," according to the coach, describing a long day of wrestling during which Polanco (23-6) started off with a bye, lost a 17-13 decision in the quarterfinals, won by a 17-3 medical decision in the consolation round and dropped the consolation semi-finals match by a fall in 4:41.
And so it went up and down the weight class ladder for the Rams with Flores (101) losing by a fall in 1:56 in the championship round and a decision in the consolation round while Builes lost to the second seed by a fall in 1:06 and dropped a close 11-9 decision in the consolation round. "We are very confident she would have done a lot better if she hadn't lost so much time due to illness (close to a month), but she is a Middle School eighth-grader wrestling on the varsity and will be back," Facciola said.
Barbour comes through
Coyt (18-11) wrestled tough losing by a fall in 4:54, a decision and a fall in 3:16 in the 108-pound weight class. Pereira (138) lost by a 4-1 decision and by falls twice in 4:21 and 4:36. And Tenesaca (160) lost by a 15-5 decision and a fall in 2 minutes flat. Lopez (160) lost by a fall in 3 minutes flat and a decision. And Velasquez (190) lost by a fall in 1:02 and an 8-1 decision while Barbour (215) won his first championship round by a fall in 52 seconds but dropped his next three matches with two falls in 41 and 2:49 and an 8-4 decision. And Poroj (285) dropped his matches by a fall in 4:46 and a 5-4 decision.
All those numbers, decisions and falls add up to a lot of grueling ups and downs for the Ram wrestlers who put in a long, hard, grueling day of hurts and disappointments that are all part of the varsity learning experience that comes from what happens when you go up against Westchester's best, including the Iona Preps (the eventual champion), Fox Lanes and Ossinings.
Facciola and his staff came away from the county championships liking what they saw from their team yet knowing the best was still ahead.
Accent on positive
Outstanding middleweight Logan Kuhn, for example, was cleared to return Monday (1/22) after getting over a dislocated knee and middleweight Christopher Ochoa is getting further evaluations on his dislocated elbow. And Builes keeps getting better against all comers as she regains her strength.
But in the here and now, the Rams are concentrating on trying to make sure that they are at their best for the Thursday Senior Night last hurrah for 10 of their top tier wrestlers: Tabata Sanchez, Lucas Cepeda, Jaden Barbour, Giovanni Oliveros, Kevin Lorenzana, Franklin Cabrera, Christopher Ochoa, Alejandro Velasquez, Erik Coyt, and Christopher Gonzalez. And while learning from the Ls has been beneficial, they would prefer to stack up more Ws in that meet against multiple schools Saturday (1/27) at Edgemont. They have been working hard to make that happen. And it would be good to see all that hard work pay off.
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