RallyNorth.net

METHUEN — When finally given the chance, junior Matt Cabezas and senior Dan O'Connell delivered big time Saturday afternoon at the Division 1 North sectional.

Thwarted by injuries for two straight years, and knocked out Wednesday from a blow in his match against Central, O'Connell delivered a convincing 9-3 decision over Westford's Jake Morash for the 182-pound title.

Andover's wrestling team defeated Lawrence for the first time in its history, 33-32, to improve its record to 13-8. Heavyweight Payton Heidtke clinched the win with a 4-3 decision over Jon Velilla. Kevin Kiely had a 30-second pin for the Warriors.

After missing two weeks because of injury, Daon Hatzigiannis returned to have a 4-0 day as Andover wrestling swept all four opposing teams at the Southwick Duals. Payton Heidtke (2-0), Kelvin Davila (4-0), Noah Krueger (2-0) and Matt Donahue (3-1) all wrestled well for the Golden Warriors.

Typically weighing in around 170, Andover bumped sophomore Brendan Major up to 195 on Saturday, and he delivered. Trailing 24-0 to Needham, but Major scored a huge pin to solidify the comeback, 42-30, as the Warriors swept their quad-meet with Malden Catholic (51-12) and Bedford (42-3).

Kelvin Davila and Josh Paige were both undefeated for Andover wrestling in Foxboro. Davila went 3-0 with three pins at 152, and Paige was 2-0 with a pair of pins at 120 as the Warriors won two matches in a quad meet.

Andover seemed to have finished 11th at the Woburn Tournament but there were all sorts of problems with the tournament so it's tough to say. Josh Paige (120), Kevin Kiely (138) and Kelvin Davilla (152) all finished third or fourth as they were unable to wrestle in the consolation finals either because they had wrestled five matches or the officials had left.

Rapidly improving Haverhill heavyweight Jay Levy had a convincing 8-4 decision over Payton Heditke to highlight Haverhill's 43-24 victory over Andover. Jake Nicolosi also had a key 8-4 decision over Kevin Kiely at 138 for the Hillies (10-2). Matt Meagher had a key decision at 170 for Andover.

Greater Lawrence senior Malib Pastrana not only won his weight class at the Chelmsford tournament, he dominated.

Pastrana started with three first-period pins at 195 pounds and then setled for a 12-2 major decision in the finals. With Abel Orta finishing second at 152 for the Reggies, Gr. Lawrence finished in 12th place, two places behind Whittier.

Freshman Daon Hatzigiannis had a key win at 106 and Elias Maita got his first varsity win at 152 as Andover defeated Billerica 41-24.

The Andover wrestling team made history when it captured the Londonderry Tournament in impressive fashion.

In the 10 years of the program, this was the first tournament championship for the Warriors and it was against some solid competition at that. Andover was first in the 15-team field with 150 points with traditional Maine powers Marshwood (139) and Sanford (137) in second and third.