RallyNorth.net

Central takes Kando approach

Thursday, December, 13 By Dave Dyer
Staff writer

LAWRENCE | The wait was well worth it for Central Catholic seniors Dave Kando and Alberto Nunez.

With the Raiders trailing North Andover 26-22 with just two matches remaining last night, Kando and Nunez | wrestling in the first varsity dual meets of their career | prevailed in a pair of barnburners, 12-10 in overtime at 171 and 5-4 on a late controversial call at 189, to give Central a heart-stopping 28-26 decision.

The victory for the Raiders ended a six-meet losing streak to the Knights and opened their dual season on an extremely high note.

"I can't remember beating North Andover, so to beat them and have a big win for the team is definitely the highlight of my wrestling career," said Kando, who finally cracked the lineup in his fourth year of wrestling. "What a great match to start the season, to beat a perennial power like them."

Kando led North Andover's Alex Smirnoff for most of the match, but a late flurry by Smirnoff tied it at 10-10. Kando came out aggressively in overtime, however, and got a takedown after just 14 seconds for the win.

As for Nunez, he trailed North Andover junior Matt Parkes 4-2 in the third period but he secured a stalling point and then was credited with a takedown with only two seconds left in the match to capture the match. The North Andover coaching staff felt strongly that Parkes had gained a takedown, making it 6-3, and that Nunez had merely gotten a reversal, so that Parkes should have won 6-5. That would have given North Andover the victory.

"I guess I don't understand what a takedown is anymore," said North Andover assistant Paul Luciano. "I thought that was a bad call."

Regardless, Central did an excellent job of not getting pinned as the Knights could only record one fall, a second-period pin by Derek Timpe at 152. Also, they picked up a crucial win at 145 where sophomore Tom Lacroix held off Jared Hood, 8-6, in a battle of two of the better middle-weights in the region.

The Raiders, on the other hand, had two pins, by Mark Strossell at 112 and Jack DiBurro at 135, received a major decision by Shain Jowett at 160, and an impressive 13-6 decision by Brendan Dowling at 119.

"Like I said to the kids, this is one of the best dual-meet wins we've had in awhile," said Central coach Dennis King. "We don't have a lot of superstars, so we need everybody to wrestle hard and they did tonight. It was a good team effort, even by those kids who didn't win but stayed off their back."

North Andover (1-1) got off to a terrific start when Kyle Dolan defeated defending Division 2 state champion Mike Leavitt, 3-1 at 215, and Andrew Bogosian followed with a 7-0 decision over Curtis Davis at heavyweight. Leavitt and Davis played football and still are not anywhere near peak shape, but the North Andover wins were still impressive.

Also winning for the Knights were Corey Neault (103), Jimmy Connolly (125), Sal Scali (130) and Garrett Alter (140). Alter, a sophomore, took an exciting 12-9 decision over Central newcomer Brian Lawrence.