Wrestlers fall to Foxboro, NA

The Canton High wrestling squad continues to struggle, losing 36-16 at Foxboro on Monday, December 20, and falling to North Attleboro by a margin of 64-11 on Thursday. The Bulldogs’ effort and desire has been consistent, but their search for a team identity is ongoing.

“Foxboro was a bit of a mixed emotion meet,” said head coach Brian Caffelle. “Some of our guys did their usual thing and stepped it up with big performances, but there were also surprises both ways.”

Caffelle’s usual suspects are freshman Chris Sullivan, winner in the 103-pound class, junior David Rosenberg at 125 pounds, and senior captain Kevin Connolly, who participated in the pivotal match of the night against Foxboro’s Brian Dorman.

Dorman, one of the Warriors’ best grapplers, bumped up from his usual weight of 130 to 135 pounds to face Connolly. Despite a back-and-forth match, Dorman was able to score a win over the Bulldog captain.

“[Connolly] got out of his game plan a little,” said Caffelle. “He is usually aggressive, but he came out a little tentative. It was tough, but he’ll learn from a match like that. People know how good he is; since he won sectionals people give him everything he can handle. I’d rather have him learn a lesson like that at the beginning of the season.”

Junior Chris Parsons was another bright spot, battling back from an early deficit to win his match at 152 pounds 7-6.

The North Attleboro match proved to be the next chapter in the Bulldogs’ mat education. Canton did manage two winners in the 64-11 loss. Sullivan (103 pounds) took his match by technical fall, while Connolly’s opponent at 135 pounds had to throw in the towel due to injury.

“Kevin learned from his mistakes early in the week,” Caffelle said. “He was completely dominating the mat.”

John McCabe also showed some of Canton’s trademark resiliency and guts at 160 pounds. Although McCabe didn’t emerge victorious, he refused to give up, and gave his opponent everything he could handle.

“It’s a real good thing to see the team show a lot of heart against a strong D2 team like that,” Caffelle said. “We just have to keep battling and improving.”

Despite the encouraging effort and desire, Caffelle still remains aware of the areas in which the Bulldogs need to improve.

“North Attleboro has a lot of numbers, they’re a well-coached team, and they go hard 110 percent of the time,” Caffelle said. “If we are going to compete with a team like that, we need to stop reacting too much and start being aggressive.”

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Posted by Danny Joseph on Dec 30 2010. Filed under High School, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.