Wrestling can't quite finish against Messiah

The bleachers of Goldfarb Gymnasium were filled last Saturday as the Hopkins wrestling team squared off against Messiah College for their only home dual match of the season. Although Messiah is not a member of the Centennial Conference, they are a familiar foe as the host team of the Messiah and Petrofes Invitational Tournaments, in which the Jays competed earlier this season. While Messiah has proven to be an extremely tough opponent in these competitions, Assistant Coach James Gillispie mentioned before the match that the Falcons did not bring a significant amount of their starting line-up to Baltimore. This resulted in a gritty fight to the finish, with Messiah coming out on top in the end by a score of 23-17.

"I was not aware of Messiah not bringing in most of their starters," sophomore 141-pounder Rocky Barilla said. "I was not told this, and I don't know if (Gillispie) told anybody else. I don't think he did, because it might affect our mental state before the match. If you know you are going to face the toughest competition, you won't back down and hopefully rise to the occasion; if you were told that you were to wrestle an easier team, you might just try to wrestle conservatively and end up underestimating."

Whether the team knew who they were facing or not, the Jays came out fighting. In the 125-pound match, Messiah's Danny Leftbridge handled freshman Adam Stevens to an 8-2 decision, but this was shortly followed by a dominating performance by freshman 133-pounder Michael Testa, who pulled together a flurry of moves in the first period that gave him a lead that he would keep to a 11-2 finish.

The 141-pound match proved to be the most exciting of the night as sophomore Rocky Barilla faced off against junior Alex DeHart. The two deadlocked in the first period and most of the second, before Barilla hit a crucial reversal in the closing seconds of the period to bring the score to 2-0. Barilla held his opponent to the mat for most of the third, and DeHart managed to execute a one-point escape in the final 20 seconds, but by then it was too late. The victory over DeHart marks Barilla's 11th straight victory.

"(DeHart) was definitely strong on top," Barilla said. "It was very difficult to escape when he threw in legs. I relied on rolling through and catching his leg. On neutral he had a very hard snap down, and I'm pretty sure he relied on that and a good shot defense."

Messiah proceeded to rally in the middle weights, taking the 149-pound match against senior Michael Vecchiolo by a major decision, the 157-pound match against freshman Will Selba by a pin in the first period, the 165-pound match against sophomore Eric Levenseller by an 8-2 decision, and the match at 174 against senior Mickey Keane by a major decision, bringing the team score to 20-7 in Messiah's favor.

The course of the match turned around with freshman 184-pounder Hector Cintron, who absolutely dominated from the neutral position. Fully confident in his ability to take down his opponent, Hector implemented the take-down-let-up strategy (one receives two points for a takedown but only one for an escape), which allowed him to coast to a 14-4 major decision.

What followed was a surprising finish at 197, as senior team captain Tyler Schmidt took on sophomore Tim Hopkins. Schmidt slipped in the first period, allowing Hopkins to capitalize on two back points following a takedown. In the second, Schmidt rode out his opponent for the full two minutes with his almost unbeatable leg ride. In the third, Schmidt pulled out an early escape but got caught in a headlock late in the period, forfeiting four points which would decide the match and close the possibility of the Jays pulling off a victory.

The Messiah match coincided with Senior Night, in which seniors Vince Domestico, Mickey Keane, Matt Rugani, Tyler Schmidt and Matt Rugani were recognized. Of the five, Rugani was the only one to pull off a victory in his final home match at Hopkins. And it was a big one.

Messiah sophomore Zane Bachert didn't have a prayer from the start. Rugani came out strong with a diving double-leg takedown that resembled a football tackle. Rugani threw in a deep half-nelson upon hitting the mat and kept Bachert on his back, scoring a pin 2:14 into the first period.

Although the Jays couldn't scrape together a victory against Messiah, they continue to move forward, improving as the season progresses toward its climax - the Centennial Conference Championships. "I think there are a bunch of quality wrestlers who can definitely place if not win the Centennial Conference," Barilla said. "We need to focus on scoring takedowns first and being aggressive throughout the match, which I believed we improved on throughout the last few months."

The Jays have one more tri-match against the nationally-ranked Merchant Marine Academy and Stevens Tech on Saturday, and then it's off to the final test of this young but determined team: the conference championships at McDaniel College.