Lynnfield-North Reading’s wrestling team hosted Saugus-Peabody Wednesday evening at Lynnfield High, with Saugus-Peabody picking up the hard-fought win 36-30.
Both teams had strong individual performances to be proud of. Jackson Deleidi was the lone winner via pin for Saugus-Peabody, while Lynnfield-North Reading had multiple winners via pin: John Powers, Ethan Downey, and David Poirier.
Saugus-Peabody coach Wayne Moda was impressed with his young team’s victory.
“We are a young team. If we had 30 guys on the team, 21 of them have not wrestled before. 80 percent of our team are eighth, ninth, and 10th graders,” Moda said.
Though young, Saugus-Peabody had multiple wrestlers who shined on the night. Max LoRusso earned a hard fought win 6-0. Midway through the match, LoRusso fought to get on his opponents back and keep him at bay. During the restart, he quickly took advantage of his speed and took control of his opponent’s back, staying on top for the rest of the match.
“He sparred with the kid [his opponent] in the summer and they know each other pretty well. He wrestled him really tough tonight,” Moda said about LoRusso.
Another individual performance Moda said he enjoyed was Jackson Deleidi against Sam Bird of Lynnfield-North Reading. It was Bird who got out to a quick 2-0 lead before Deleidi answered by taking Bird’s back and evening the score. Though Deleidi was on top of Bird’s back, Bird was determined to keep getting back to his feet and earned two more points at the end of the period. With things tied 4-4, Deleidi used his quickness in the final period and got the pin on Bird.
“That was a big win. Him [Deleidi] winning after the third match – we basically knew we had the match won,” Moda said.
Though discouraged about not having a full team, Lynnfield-North Reading’s head coach Craig Stone believes there are positives to take from matches like this.
“They have good attitudes and we only have two seniors, and a few were out today with sickness and injuries,” Stone said.
Senior captain Ethan Downey of Lynnfield-North Reading, who is a second year wrestler, earned an impressive victory over Sean Golden. Downey went down 0–2 early in the match before fighting back to his feet and getting to the back of Golden. Downey demonstrated his strength in the first period, winning 3-2 and taking that momentum all the way to victory.
“He’s coming along at a great rate. He is a good role model for everybody on the team,” Stone said.
Stone was also full of praise for senior David Poirier, noting his improvement each year. Stone acknowledged Poirier “probably has more wins this year than the prior years combined.”
Saugus-Peabody’s next match is Thursday on the road against Beverly (6:30 p.m.), while Lynnfield-North Reading hosts Bishop Fenwick Friday evening (5 p.m.).
Mark Aboyoun can be reached at mark@itemlive.com
