Hollis Brookline wrestling pulls out tough win over Milford

MILFORD – The Hollis Brookline and Milford high school wrestling teams have had some good battles over the years, including in the last three Division II championship meets.

Wednesday night’s dual meet was no different, as all but one contested match went the distance before the Cavaliers were able to get a 23-18 win over the Spartans.

HB (8-0) kept its record in the division perfect going into Thursday’s makeup dual with Windham (7-0), while Milford (6-3) dropped its second division dual in a row. But that didn’t matter much to the Spartans and coach Dana Bourassa.

“It was a big test for our kids and they passed the test,” Bourassa said. “I know we didn’t win and Hollis is a very good program, I give a lot of credit to them, but I was happy with our kids.

“Milford and Hollis is always a great match, no matter what. The big thing is that it’s a true rivalry where we really go hard at each other and then we’re good sports afterward. That’s what athletics is supposed to be about.”

In 2012, HB beat Milford by three points to win the division title, and when the Cavs won again the next year, Milford was right there in third. Last season, the Spartans moved up to second as HB took third.

“The Milford guys wrestled well, they looked awesome, they really did,” HB coach Brian Bumpus said. “They came out fired up and we came out a little flat. They gave us good battles at weights where we didn’t know if we were going to be in a battle.”

Nathaniel Lindsay (132 pounds) got HB a 4-0 to start the night by beating Peyton Dannewitz 12-1, but Ricky DeBernardo (138) rallied from a 7-4 deficit in the next match to beat Lucas Cummings 9-7, and Mike Pellitieri (145) beat Nick McPherson 7-0 to put Milford up 6-4.

“You could have held that one in a phone booth because those guys were after each other the whole time,” Bourassa said of the 138 match. “It was just an exciting match to watch.”

The Cavs responded by winning five of the next six matches. Christian Lopez (152) defeated Devyn Pioli 7-4 and Andrew Butler (160) rolled past George Horta 13-4 to give HB an 11-6 lead.

Wyatt Farwell (170) picked up some points in the third period to beat Jake Ricca 9-3, but Milford’s Kyle Faucher Clancy (182) beat Travis Guthrie 6-3 to cut HB’s lead to 14-9. Kayne Robert (195) recorded the only pin of the night, stopping Dustin Post at the 2:33 mark, and Clement Sherwood (220) beat Josh Smith 5-1 to put the Cavs up 23-9.

Milford’s Travis Hughes (285) won a forfeit and Matt Digiosio (106) was able to hold off a late charge by Cameron Dreyer to win 10-7.

“Clem wrestled great, and even Cam in a loss wrestled great,” Bumpus said of his freshmen wrestlers. “He didn’t go to his back, he didn’t get pinned, he put up a nice tough fight.

“It goes a long way. They’re going to have a lot of six-minute matches coming their way in the next two or three weeks. This helps prepared for next Saturday (at the Division II meet).”

The Spartans had no one to wrestle the final three matches, and with the match already in hand, the Cavs elected not to send anyone else out.