TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Hernando Today

NCT's monster rally not enough

ADVERTISEMENT

By MARTY MILLER, Hernando Today correspondent

Published: December 24, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - Wednesday night did not start off particularly well for Nature Coast Technical wrestling coach Mike Lastra.

The reason was visiting Lecanto.

The Panthers jumped out to a 30-0 lead by winning the dual meet's opening five matches.

But then the hosts caught fire as the Sharks won six straight matches to retake a 35-30 lead with three bouts remaining.

The problem was that the Sharks could not hold off the Panthers, who won two of the last three matches to give Lecanto a 41-38 nod over the Sharks.

"The problem we have is that we are really inexperienced in the middle weights and that's where this match started," said Lastra. "We don't have many veteran wrestlers there, they are all new kids. But to be down 30-0 and rally back, the kids deserve a lot of credit."

Panthers roar early

With the dual match beginning at the 145-pound weight class, Lecanto got off to a hot start by winning the opening five matches, all of them by pins.

But starting at 215 pounds, the Sharks stormed back to take the lead.

Brandon Nuby began the comeback with a technical fall over Lecanto's Mike Navarro, 20-5, then the Sharks' J.J. Baker pinned Chris Benjamin in 11 seconds.

Following that, Matt Henn at 103 pounds, Tyler Forand at 112, David Simonson at 119 and Scott Cronin at 125 all got pins for the Sharks as they forged into control, 35-30.

But Lecanto was able to win two of the final three weight classes to get the win and improve its record to 6-4.

At 130 pounds, the Panthers Sam Arccadipane won a technical fall over Shark freshman Brenton Nuby, 16-1, before Matt Lambert bested Lecanto's Jason Robert, 5-3, at 135 pounds, making the score 38-35 Sharks.

Then the Sharks inexperience came into play as Steve Struble pinned Maurice Mendez at 2:57 to win at 140 pounds and win the match for the Panthers.

"We're still making some silly mistakes and they cost us tonight," said Lastra. "We only have three third-year wrestlers and yeah it's tough, but it's really no excuse."
NCT now has the Ed Goodpaster Invitational Friday and Saturday in Land O' Lakes before taking the rest of the holiday break off.

"I think something like this is a good learning process for the kids," said Lastra, whose team's record in dual matches now stands at 1-1. "Lecanto is a good team but it showed what kind of heart the kids have that we came back tonight."

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT