After dominating their season opening match against Ashland, the wrestling team traveled to Long Island to battle the Pride of Hofstra over the weekend.
Against a Pride squad that wrestled two top 10 wrestlers, the Bulls (1-0-1) overcame a 16-9 deficit to tie the Pride (0-0-1) 16-16. The Bulls last wrestled to a tie against Bloomsburg on December 15, 2007. By recording the tie, the Bulls knocked the Pride – previously ranked No. 25 – out of the Top 25.
The 141-pound freshman, Andrew Schutt, held the fate of the Bulls in his hands when he took to the mat to battle Hofstra freshman Tyler Banks in the final match of the day.
Schutt was down 3-0 late in the contest when he scored reversal and a three-point nearfall with 15 seconds remaining to secure the tie for Buffalo. The victory gave Schutt his first career dual victory.
The first match of the day pitted two nationally ranked wrestlers against each other when Buffalo's 16th ranked sophomore Desi Green went up against Hofstra's 20th ranked Justin Accordino in the 149-pound match. Green set the pace for the Bulls by winning his match after scoring an escape and holding off Accordino to secure a 3-0 advantage.
This is the second consecutive match in the young season that Green has pulled out a victory in a close bout.
Hofstra recovered quickly by going on a four match-winning streak to take a stranglehold of the lead.
The second match of the day featured a pair of seniors in Hofstra's ninth-ranked Johnny Bonilla-Bowman and Bulls senior Andrew Stella in the 157-pound weight class. Bonilla-Bowman captured the victory easily, beating Stella 10-5 and making the score even at 3-3 for the meet.
Hofstra continued the hot streak by winning the next three matches, including a win by 10th ranked junior Ryan Patrovich, who disposed of the Bulls freshman Matt Bogardus 10-3 in the 174-pound match.
Trailing 13-3 after five bouts, the Bulls turned to 20th ranked junior Jimmy Hamels to get them back into the match. He delivered in the 197-pound contest with an 8-6 victory over Hofstra's Anthony Tortora.
Hamel's performance was key to the Bulls comeback as he slowed the Pride's momentum.
The two teams would each won one of the next two matches as the Pride maintained a healthy 16-9 lead over the Bulls.
With hope seemingly bleak for the Bulls, sophomore Kevin Smith came out and restored some of it with his technical fall victory over Hofstra's Jeff Rotella. Smith outscored Rotella 27-12 in the 131-pound contest and converted on 11 takedowns before handing things over to Schutt.
Next up for the Bulls is the Body Bar Invitational at Cornell University on Nov. 21. The invite is scheduled to start at 9 a.m.
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