THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 19, 1996 TAG: 9601190045
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LEE TOLLIVER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
Cox continued its wrestling dominance of First Colonial Thursday on the Patriots' home mat with a 31-25 victory that secured an Eastern Region duals slot for the Falcons.
Cox holds a 26-2 edge in the series history.
The victory also gave fourth-ranked Cox (10-3 overall, 8-0 in the Beach District) at least a tie for the Beach title. Tallwood is 5-0 and hosts Cox in the season finale Jan. 27. The top two teams in the district advance to the region level.
No. 5 First Colonial is 0-11 against Cox under coach Joe Bothel and has never qualified for the dual meet postseason. Barring any upsets down the stretch, the Patriots won't again this year.
But this contest was considerably different from the one-sided matchups of old.
``It sure was,'' Falcons coach Jud Stokes said. ``This one wasn't easy at all. It was too stressful for me.''
First Colonial (9-2, 5-2) took the lead after 119 on Jason Bernd's forfeit victory.
First Colonial held a 22-15 advantage after Ryan Balsly narrowly decisioned Doug Dolenti 6-5 at 152. But Will Lewis scored a 6-2 victory over Joe Romano at 160 and Mohamad Yousoffi earned a major decision (16-2) over Anthony Velarde at 171 to tie the match at 22-22.
Again, First Colonial pulled ahead when third-ranked Tom Juskevich decisioned Matt Tucker at 189. That's when the Falcons finally scored big - with David Walker pinning Dave Throckmorton with 10 seconds remaining in the first period to give Cox a 28-25 lead.
With some of the pressure off, Steve Mings went out and scored a 7-1 decision over Eric Miller to round out the scoring.
``I had beaten him in the Western Branch tournament,'' Ming said of Miller. ``That helped me and the pin before made it so I didn't have to go out and try to pin him. All I had to do was wrestle how I wanted.''
Another difference was the stellar job Cox wrestlers did of staying off their backs in matches against ranked Patriots at 130, 135 and 189. And the Falcons managed a major decision out of their lone ranked wrestler at 145.
``When Cox and First Colonial wrestle, you don't count on anything,'' Bothel said. ``That kid pinning Throckmorton was the difference in this match
Princess Anne 49, Green Run 18: George Kiesel (103), David Sutton (112), Nate Parker (125), Ray VanNostrand (130) and Jose Moncada (215) won by fall and Steve VanNostrand scored a 10-4 decision in the decisive 160-pound match for the No. 10 Cavaliers. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY C. KNAPP
Sheldon Viola of Cox works on Jamie Harris of First Colonial in
their 125-pound match Thursday. The Falcons' win secured them a
Eastern Region duals slot.
by CNB