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Buco, rugged Reggies remain perfect

Sunday, January, 20 By Dave Dyer
Staff writer

The sun continued to shine on the Greater Lawrence wrestling team yesterday.

As the Reggies romped to their 20th straight win of the season and 45th straight over two years, 59-15 over Brooks, they even won the lone close match of the afternoon.

At 103 pounds, freshman Matt Buco remained undefeated, but just barely, by defeating another fine freshman, North Reading's Mike O'Boyle of Brooks, 8-6 in overtime.

O'Boyle, who has wrestled up a weight at 112 most of the year, held a 4-0 lead after two periods, but Buco stormed back in the third period to tie the match and then got a quick takedown in overtime for the win.

"It was a tough match," said Buco. "He beat me two years ago (in youth wrestling), but I just kept thinking takedown in the third period. I think I was in better condition." Indeed, Buco looked fresher at the end.

"I think that (conditioning) was the difference," said Greater Lawrence coach Tony Sarkis. "That was definitely the biggest match of the day."

Other than that, the Reggies won seven of their other 10 wins by pin and also had an impressive technical fall by 160-pound sophomore Kyle Berube.

Victor Sosa began the meet at 189 with perhaps the quickest pin of the season, in nine seconds. Joining him with first-period falls were Brian Nadeau (125), Wadscar Gomez (130), Saul Orellana (135), Brian Rivera (145) and Angel Rivera (171). Chris DelaRosa (152) added a second-period pin and Franchesco Ortiz (119) picked up a 7-1 decision. In addition to Buco, Miguel Guzman (who had a forfeit at 112), Ortiz, Orellana and DelaRosa all remained unbeaten on the year.

After Sosa's nine-second pin, Brooks did win two of the next three weight classes to take a brief lead. Haverhill's Guy Landers enjoyed a 9-2 decision at 215, just missing a pin in the closing seconds, and North Andover's Pat Lahey recorded a pin in just 1:16.

The only other win for the Green and White came at 140 where sophomore Colin Lahiff of Haverhill remained unbeaten with a second-period pin.

"Colin has been wrestling very well all year and I thought Landers wrestled his best match of the season," said Brooks coach Alex Konovalchik. "Obviously, they're an excellent team and we had our hands full."