By Joseph Bell

Record Staff Writer

JOHNSONBURG – Oswayo Valley was able to field only four grapplers last night and it cost them in a 60-12 romp against Johnsonburg, another team that has routinely been shorthanded throughout the dual meet season.

Oswayo Valley senior Logan Kellogg, wrestling in the 140-pound weight class, earned an 11-5 decision win over Johnsonburg junior Preston Mahoney to get on the board, 6-3, after the Rams received at early forfeit win at 135 pounds.

Kellogg scored an early takedown for the 2-0 lead but Mahoney was able to escape at the buzzer to score one point. In the second period, Kellogg scored a reversal at the 1:13 mark to grab a 4-1 advantage and, with time winding down, the grapplers traded reversals with Mahoney shifting Kellogg with 15 seconds to go to cut the deficit to one point. But five seconds later, Kellogg turned the trick on Mahoney and regained his three-point cushion.

A reversal just 27 seconds into the final period gave Mahoney hope but the Rams' grappler was unable to mount an offensive attack in the final minute. Kellogg scored an eventual reversal with 10 seconds remaining to grab an 8-5 lead and was later awarded three back points as time expired for the 11-5 win.

After two consecutive forfeit wins for the Rams, junior Michael Paladino, wrestling at 160 pounds, scored a pinfall victory over Oswayo Valley freshman Luke Wilson.

Paladino scored a takedown at the halfway mark of the first period and earned the pinfall win with just 0.2 seconds remaining in the first period. The fall gave Johnsonburg a 24-3 lead before taking seven straight forfeit wins to take a 60-9 advantage. 

Oswayo Valley took the last bout at 130 pounds as junior Danny Harris defeated Johnsonburg senior Kenny Gadley by a 7-3 decision in the Rams' 60-12 triumph.

The Oswayo Valley match was the first match of the night for the Rams as they also defeated visiting Kane, 56-9.

"We were looking to win both matches and both teams are shorthanded. They don't have a full lineup but we don't either. We were just looking for some good matches for the kids and they wrestled well," Launer said. "We wanted to get some wrestling in as next weekend is districts. This ends our regular season and we ended 10-13 in dual matches and we're happy with that because we knew we wouldn't have an outstanding dual match record."

Reviewing both dual matches, Launer said he was impressed with several of his wrestlers.

"(Johnsonburg senior) Josh Woodford wrestled good again tonight and (Johnsonburg sophomore) Jesse Wolfe had a good match. (Johnsonburg junior) Quinton O'Rourke wrestled well too and we're where we want to be," Launer said. "We had a real good week in practice and we worked hard all week. I give the kids a lot of credit because we had a lot of tough practices this week. We had the two matches coming up (last night) and we got a good workout in."

According to Launer his team will not practice today as the grapplers prepare for the district tournament which is scheduled to be held next weekend in Clarion.

"We think the kids are in pretty good shape and we ran them pretty good in the last week, getting their legs and their lungs where we want them to be, so we did a lot of running," Launer said. "This week, we're pretty much going to work on the basics and some live wrestling and get them ready. We'll have the seeding meeting on Tuesday (night) and we'll have an idea of where everybody is at on Wednesday and who we have to prepare for, who the opening matches are."

Despite the sub-.500 dual meet record, Launer said he has been looking forward to this portion of the wrestling season.

"It's been a long season and with the dual match season being over, now it's the individual thing and basically, when you can't fill a full lineup, this is the part of the season that you really look forward to," Launer said. "We have some kids with some outstanding records this year and hopefully, we'll get them through to regionals. That's our goal, to get as many of them as we can to Sharon."

One grappler that Launer will have his eye on is Woodford, who now has 97 career wins to his name.

"Unfortunately, they took two points away from the schools this year and you could only schedule 22 competition points rather than 24, so we lost two dual matches. Those would've really helped Woody," Launer said. "Hopefully he won't get a bye at districts and the byes come out of the bottle so they're not automatic to the top three seeds. We're hoping he can get as many matches as possible at districts and I'd love to see him get his 100th win at districts because there would be a nice crowd there, a lot of people from Johnsonburg."