Rye High Wrestling

Garnets Overwhelm Peekskill, 79-0

By Mitch Silver

Shorty before the wrestling match between Rye High and Peekskill on the first Thursday of the New Year, I asked Head Coach Joel Jenson if he might have time afterwards for a quick interview.

He told me the interview might go longer than the match. ?Peekskill only has six wrestlers.?

Sure enough, the Red Devils arrived with a sextet of grapplers and a coach. Now, nobody wants to win by a forfeit, but that?s just what happened as Rye?s Aidan Petriella (99 lbs.), Ryan Becton (106), Madoc Digiulio (120), Jack McRedmond (132), Kasei Arai (138), Tommy DeCaro (152), Jack Garnett (170), and Dylan Webb (182) all had their hands raised in victory without breaking a sweat. The walkover lifted Webb?s record to 13-2 on the young season.

Junior Peter Patouhas (facing camera) will go on to pin Peekskill?s Kendall Cousins at the 4:41 mark.

Dylan?s older brother Tyler, a senior co-captain, had to earn his eighth victory against just one defeat. He pinned Rashaun Williams at 220 lbs. after just a minute of their bout. In the other pairings, ninth grader Caleb Wexler scored a 9-3 decision over Eduardo Ramirez at 145; junior co-captain Joseph Sciulli, weighing in at 160, won on a major decision, 17-3; classmate Grant Howard pinned Jordan Alvarez with 25 seconds to go in their second period; and yet another junior, Peter Pahouhas, put away his freshman opponent, Kendall Cousins, with a third-period fall. A second bout was held at 195 lbs. between two grapplers named Carlos. Rye?s Rodriguez pinned Peekskill?s Lopez just as the buzzer ending the first period was set to sound.

Senior Carlos Rodriguez, wrestling at 195, will pin another Carlos, last name Lopez, in the next two seconds.

 

Through it all, Rye Head Coach Joel Jensen talked his charges through their moves. ?Get his head down?move your feet?back away?now use your hips? rang out around the gym, because Jensen?s voice has more decibels to it than most P.A. systems can manage.

Afterwards, he was a little sheepish. ?Everyone tells me to use my indoor voice. Well, that is my indoor voice.?

In the recent past, Rye has been the team that has to forfeit a lot of matchups. Not this year.

Junior co-captain Joe Sciulli (on top) scored a major decision over Oscar Vigil in the 160 lb. bout.

?We finally have some depth,? the coach said. ?For all the time I?ve been here, we?ve lost to Rye Country Day because we didn?t have enough kids. We beat them this year 42-21 right before Christmas. They have a strong program with some tough kids, so it was a nice present to get.?

The 4-4 Garnets will host Our Lady Of Lourdes Tuesday, January 15 at 4:30 p.m.