Fishburne Wrestlers Pin Massanutten!

The Streak Ends as Caissons Roll

Tonight in the FMS Gym the young Caisson Wrestling Team took to the mat in a rival match with Massanutten Military Academy. The Caisson Wrestling team has not been able to defeat the MMA Wrestling Team for the past four seasons. Tonight that streak came to a screeching halt as the Caissons rolled in their first home match of the season.

It was set to be a long hard fight as the night started, and figured to come down to the big boys in the upper weight classes. The young Caissons had to juggle the line up in areas and move some people around and up weights to make the match-ups work for the team. They took the mat determined to give all they had and fight to the bitter end, and in doing so they turned a close match in to a runaway in the end. Every member of the team did a great job and stepped up giving the team the boost it needed in all the right areas. Going in to the match the team knew that the middle weights would and could make or break the team score, and every team member had to give it their all on the mat. When all was said and done the final score was FMS 57 MMA 23, it was a great night for the team. Below is a break down of how the match panned out on the night.

103 Pounds: Michael Labianca (10th Grade) stepped on the mat and took a forfeit as MMA did not have any one in this weight. Starting the team score as FMS 6 MMA 0

112 Pounds: Bevin Morrison-Rodgers (8th Grade) stepped on the mat and in a back and forth match that looked to be ending with a FMS Pin turned around suddenly and ending with Morrison-Rodgers getting pinned. Making the team score FMS 6 MMA 6

119 Pounds: Kyle Harvey (10 Grade) took the mat and ended his match in the first period with a pin. Making the team score FMS 12 MMA 6.

125 Pound: FMS did not send a wrestler to the mat giving MMA the win by forfeit making the team score once again even at FMS 12 MMA 12

130 Pound: Devin Shea (Senior) took to the mat for the first time this season and after a long blood stoppage due to a bloody nose Shea got pinned giving MMA its first lead of the night at MMA 18 FMS 12

135 Pounds: Krsha Shukla (10 Grade) stepped on the mat to take a forfeit as the MMA wrestler at this weigh did not make weight again knotting the score at FMS 18 MMA 18

140 Pounds: Joseph Forehand (8th Grade) Forehand took the mat and started out hard and fast taking an early lead then letting the match get close before pinning the MMA Wrestler with 2 seconds left in th second period moving the score to FMS 24 MMA 18, a lead that the Caissons would not give up the rest of the night.

145 Pounds: Boston Berg (9th Grade) had to wrestle by far the best wrestler on the MMA Team, Team Captain and top 12 in the state last year. Berg fought hard and did all he could falling behind by 14 points, then in a move to save team points he released the MMA Wrestler giving up 1 point and forcing a stoppage of wrestling and a Tech Fall giving MMA 5 points instead of 6 if it had been a pin making the Team Score FMS 24 MMA 23. This would turn out to be the true turning point of the match as the Caissons would not lose another match the rest of the night.

152 Pounds: Ben Drumm (Senior) took to the mat and going hard from the get go and earning a first period pin putting the team score to FMS 30 MMA 23

160 Pounds: Christopher Sliger (Senior) stepped on the mat to wrestle the same MMA wrestler the he faced just 4 days ago when he was injured and pinned. Sliger did an outstanding jog of countering everything the MMA wrestler could throw at him and kept the score close into the second period when Sliger stepped up and pinned the MMA Wrestler moving the team score to FMS 36 MMA 23.

171 Pounds: Conner Smith (Senior) stepped into the starting roll at 171 for the first time this season so our normal 171 could move up to wrestle 189. Now with the team needing just 6 more points to force at worst a tie, Smith showed more heart and drive then anyone in the gym has seen. Smith was taken down and put on his back and he fought for well over a minute to not get pinned, ending the first period trailing by 5 points. At the end of period 2, Smith had cut the score to 5 to 2. Then in the third period Smith got a take down making the score 5 to 4 and wrestling was very slow. With 28 seconds left in the match a decision was made to give the MMA Wrestler 1 point putting them back on their feet and the score to 6 to 4 with Smith losing. Then with less then 20 seconds to go the decision paid off as Smith shot and got the take down, and with less then 10 seconds putting the MMA Wrestler on his back for a 5 point move and a final score of 9 to 6 in the favor of Smith and the Team Score to FMS 39 MMA 23. Now only needing 3 more points to assure at least a team tie.

189 Pounds: Tyler Lawson (11th Grade) moved up a weight class as he is the 171 starter, so stepping on the mat was giving up 18 pound to the MMA Wrestler. Lawson did a great job and took 7 to 0 score into the second period, then 13 to 2 score into the third. In the third period Lawson’s hard work paid off and he got the pin to end the match and lock up the Caisson Team Victory making the score FMS 45 MMA 23 with 2 weights to go.

215 Pounds: Justin Bell (11th Grade) stepped into the starting line up again like Smith to allow our normal starter at 215 to move up took a forfeit as the MMA Wrestler was not allowed to travel to the match making the team score FMS 51 MMA 23.

285 Pounds: Michael Innella (11th Grade), Mike stepped on to the mat to take on the MMA 285 that was entering the Match with a current record of 6 – 0 and winning the MMA Invitational Tournament this past weekend. Innella was giving up over 50 pounds to the MMA Wrestler. Innella went to work and scored an early take down then gave up an escape only to turn around and score another take down making the score 4 to 1, but that was not even needed in the end as after the second take down Innella turned the MMA Heavy Weight to his back and not letting him off scoring the pin in 1:12 and ending the night with the final team score FMS 57 MMA 23

It was a very proud night for the Caisson Wrestlers as they will now enter the Holiday Break with a team record of 2 – 0 along with 10 wrestlers having a medal from the MMA Invitational. The season is like the team still very young. The team is doing well and has a ways to go, but again they are on the right road and headed in the right direction with lots of hard work in practice the team will only get better.

Thanks to the fans that filled the gym and go very loud in support of the team as it truly helps these young men work harder knowing they have the support of the rest of the Corp of Cadets behind them.

Coach C

CAISSON WRESTLING