Ketcham’s Isaac Matthews and John Jay’s Derek White wrestle at the Section 1 dual meet tournament on Wednesday in Wiccopee.
WICCOPEE – The Indians are moving on in the Section 1 Dual Meet tournament.
And in order to advance, the Roy C. Ketcham High School wrestling team had to win on a rival’s home mat.
Ketcham defeated host John Jay 45-30 on Wednesday, and move on to Tuesday’s quarterfinals. Likewise, Arlington beat Horace Greeley 40-34 in Chappaqua to reach the quarterfinals.
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Josh Shoemaker, Ketcham’s coach, understood the importance of wrestling the Patriots.
“Every time we wrestle them, it’s our Super Bowl,” Shoemaker said. “It’s huge. I told them it’s the Super Bowl and no matter what happens, they need to win this match.”
With the match on the line, Jesse Pascale (170 pounds) did just that.
Pascale beat Brendan Cullen 12-9 to sway the score Ketcham’s way. Joe Zaluski (182) then defeated Zach Vukosa 12-4 to seal it.
“This helped the kids,” Shoemaker added. “They are good, they can wrestle. They now know what they can do, and they just have to keep building off that.”
Randy Earl (138) was among John Jay’s winners. He scored a win by pinfall over Liam Wilson. Patriots coach Jamie Weaver said he had to make some changes to his lineup — but still, his team performed the way he expected it to.
“We were trying to adjust our lineup because we have holes in it right now. It worked out in some cases, other cases it backfired,” Weaver said. “Every time we wrestle Ketcham, there’s a lot of heart.”
The Patriots also defeated Beacon, 57-27, before losing to Ketcham. Kyle Davis (220) won both of the matches he wrestled by pinfall.
“We didn’t quite meet what I wanted to, but we’ll go back to the room and continue to work,” Bulldogs coach Ron Tompkins said.
Ulises Olmedo (113), Chris Gresis (138), Gavin Pasqualini (120) and Jacquez Poole (285) each scored wins by pinfall for Arlington against Horace Greeley.
A.J. Martelli: amartelli@poughkeepsiejournal.com, 845-437-4836, Twitter: @AJM_PoJoSports