WRESTLING: Two Forfeits Hurt in Loss

    Having to forfeit at 120 and 126 pounds again denied a possible win to East Hampton High School’s wrestling team here in a match with Miller Place on Jan. 23.

    The good news, however, was that the 120-pounder, Lucas Escobar, the team’s best wrestler, who had suffered a broken clavicle earlier in the season, had been cleared to compete in the league meet at Westhampton Beach High School this Saturday.

    “Of the 13 matches wrestled, we won eight,” Steve Tseperkas, Bonac’s coach, said. Miller Place, which had been winless going into the match, as was the case also with East Hampton, wound up a 40-34 winner.

    The match began at 152 pounds, and East Hampton’s entrant, Dallas Foglia, won by a major decision, worth 4 points, over John Krause. Juan Varon was pinned in the second period at 160 by Miller Place’s Jake McKeown; Dana Harvey won a major decision over Kyle Vetrano at 170; Luciano Escobar, Lucas’s younger brother, won 11-8 at 182; Alfredo Perez won 13-4 at 195; Kevin Heine pinned Rob Leen in the second period at 220, and Richie Browne won by major decision at 285.

    Starting around again, Jonathan Hansen was pinned in the third period at 99 pounds by the Panthers’ Seamus O’Connell; Haiau Duong was pinned in the first period at 106 by Connor Hag; Kevin Boles was pinned in the third period at 113 by Alex Hin; East Hampton, as aforesaid, forfeited at 120 and at 126; Matt Smudzinski won 5-0 at 132; Anthony Pineda won by major decision at 138, and Colton Kalbacher pinned his man, Justin Simon, in the third period.

    All in all, “it was a good showing,” said Tseperkas. “If we hadn’t had to forfeit at those two weights, and if the ref had called the pins we had at 170, 182, 195, and 285 — he was slow getting down — things would have been different.”

    Regarding recent tournaments, the coach said that “we had four place-winners at Mattituck [Jan. 19]. Heine won at 220, Browne was fourth at 285, Colton was sixth at 145, and Alfredo was sixth at 195. . . . There were 13 teams there. Connetquot won it.”

    At Port Jefferson’s Bob Armstrong invitational tournament this past Saturday, Heine won at 220; Kalbacher was third at 145, edging Islip’s John Theo 3-2 in the consolation match thanks to a third-period takedown, thus avenging an earlier-season loss; Browne, who has placed in all four tournaments he’s vied in this season, was third at 285, and Luciano Escobar was fourth at 182.

    The top four in each of the league meet’s weight classes are to advance to the county meet, at Hofstra University on Feb. 10 and 11. “If you don’t make it to the semis, you’re out,” said the coach, who added that he thought Heine, whom he expected to be seeded behind Westhampton’s Jake Martin at 220, had the best chance. Lucas Escobar and Kalbacher also had chances, he said, “though both of those weight classes are loaded. Lucas will have to have a good day and Colton will have to upset someone. Richie Browne also has a chance, and Foglia’s a dark horse at 152.”