Eagles suffer a setback

Expectations were obviously high around the Rocky Point wrestling program coming into this season. After a strong start to the season, which included a couple dominant dual meet wins against the weaker teams of League V, the Eagles hit their first bump in the season when they lost to Huntington Friday, 26-20. League V, with Islip, Sayville and Harborfields, is a brutally tough league and the Eagles will need a win this Friday at home against Islip to keep their hopes of a league title alive. Even the one loss may be too much. Huntington, Islip and Sayville are all undefeated at 3-0. Assuming the Eagles can beat Islip and Sayville, they’ll need one of them to then knock off Huntington to potentially create a four-way tie with each team finishing 6-1. More likely is one team goes undefeated.

Huntington has the early edge, having already beaten Rocky Point. Islip and Sayville haven’t faced the top teams in League V yet. Sayville has beaten Harborfields, but it would appear the Tornadoes are a notch below the other three teams. Sayville closes its League V season home against Rocky Point, at Islip and at Huntington. It would seem unlikely they win all three of those, especially with two on the road.
Islip, after Friday’s match at Rocky Point, gets Huntington at home and Sayville at home before closing out the season at Harborfields.

Against Huntington the Eagles won six bouts while Huntington took seven. The core middle weights (135-152) for Rocky Point all delivered, with Anthony Volpe, Jerry Ceccio, Billy Coggins and Anthony Pantori winning. Brandon Escobar won at 112. Huntington won 160-215 as well as 103, 119 and 130.

A disappointing loss for Rocky Point came at 103, where Matt Ross was shut out in a 17-0 tech fall by senior Jose Vasquez, the top-ranked wrestler at 103. Ross is the top-ranked wrestler at 96, but wrestles up a class in most dual meets where there's no 96 match. Ross is still a freshman so Vasquez clearly was the favorite heading into that match and one I’m sure he would expect to win. It’s a lesson learned for Ross, who will do just fine in his 96-pound class. We saw Shoreham’s Steven Keith lose a couple matches at 103 in dual meets last year and went on to win a state title at 96.

Perhaps the most shocking loss for Rocky Point came Saturday at the Rocky Gilmore Tournament at East Islip. Escobar, who had been the top-ranked wrestler at 112, lost in the finals to Alex Gomez of Brentwood, 6-2. Escobar slipped to fifth in the latest rankings posted Sunday. Keith is now ranked first, ahead of Jake Benedetto (Islip), Gomez and Glenn Donatelli (Bayport).

Escobar doesn’t lose very often, so I’d expect him to bounce back strongly.

The Eagles finished third at the tournament, a respectable showing behind Brentwood and Hauppauge. Ross won the 96-pound title as the only Rocky Point champion. Pantori (152) was the only other wrestler to make the finals.

Brentwood and Hauppauge were expected to be the top two teams in the county this year and they showed why. It looks like as good as the Eagles are, they’re still a step below those two teams.