Stoughton Falls at OA in Wrestling Opener

Oliver Ames came into Wednesday’s home meet against the without seniors Matt Harding and Nick Hutchinson, who were nursing injuries.

What started out as a concern for OA coach Adam Pomella turned into a hard-fought 57-18 victory over an improved squad at the Nixon Gymnasium.

“I’m psyched about the outcome,” Pomell said. “We had a couple of 50-50 matchups that our kids won and what won it for us was the depth.”

Even without Harding and Hutchinson, OA showed its depth in many of those “50-50” matchups as Pomella alluded to. The first four matches were an indication of that.

In the 106 matchup, OA senior Tim Gover defeated Stoughton freshman Brandon Allen via pinfall in the opening bout. The Black Knights took the next two matches with senior captain Steven Colling (113) and junior Michael Johnson (120) earning pinfalls over OA sophomore Lucas Keegan and junior Devin Ness, respectively, to give Stoughton the 12-6 lead.

After Johnson's victory, OA freshman Jameson Dixon (126) provided a spark for his team in his matchup with Stoughton junior Mikey Cardoso to tie things at 12-12 by pinfall.

Other highlights during OA's 55-point run included senior Devin Thomas' third-round pinfall over Rob Mone (152), senior captain Mitchell Gadless' (170) 33-second pinfall over Stephen Stenstrom (170) and Zach Ortega’s victory over Sean Flaherty (182).

Despite the loss, Stoughton proved to be a more than formidable opponent for OA in its first appearance of the winter.

“I thought we did well in our first appearance,” said second-year Stoughton coach Justin Leonard. “We had a lot of wrestlers who were in their first meet of the year and there were a lot of close matchups throughout the night. After talking to my staff and the OA staff we both thought that the final score didn’t necessarily reflect the actual outcome.”

Stoughton ended the night on a high note when senior captain (285) – one of the top heavyweights in the state – earned a victory over OA junior Jake McCabe by pinfall.

Stoughton is off until Monday night when they travel to Sharon for a Davenport matchup.

“We’ll get right to work at practice and work on a few things,” Leonard said. “Hopefully we can give Sharon a good test.”

OA, meanwhile, looks to repeat as champions of the Taunton Invitational tournament Saturday morning before traveling to North Attleboro for dual-meet action on Monday.

Colling, Paredes and fellow senior Kevin Richard are the this season.  The team also returns Flaherty, Kevin Dixon and Spencer Dennis.

"We have a lot of dedicated young guys who are ready to step in. We are looking to raise the bar, like we try to do every year,” Leonard said.

"We have a few standouts who are expected to go real far, notably Andrew Parades and Steven Colling,” assistant coach Pat Walsh added. “We expect to have a lot of postseason wrestling this year. A lot of the younger guys improved on last year and now they are a year older and we have some great leaders."