CENTREVILLE WRESTLING

The battle of the cats ended on the side of Centreville as the Cougars of Oakton and our own wildcats got mixed up in a Concorde District catfight Wednesday night. There were a few brawls in some weight classes for District supremacy. Freshman phenom Tyler Love made his weight class interesting defeating Matthew Notarangelo by decision. The 160 pound weight class, in the Concorde District, is loaded with Northern Region and VHSL ranked wrestlers, and now Tyler is deep in the mix. Avenging two losses to Cougar senior Austin Murga last season, David Chenevey put a whoopin’ on Murga early and never looked back. Although getting a little conservative in the third period and allowing Murga to make it a match, Chenevey escaped from a last second takedown to take the 10-9 victory securing his top seed in Concorde District.
The night began in exciting fashion as Oakton celebrated senior night and the hostile crowed got into the action early. HWT Spencer Conley took a decision from Wildcat Jason Park with several defensive takedowns giving the Cougars a 3-0 lead in ther match. That was the only time Oakton enjoyed a team lead as the Wildcats slapped the Cougars around the rest of the night. At 106 pounds Freshman Chung Do Kim received a forfeit putting Centreville up 6-3. Then it was VUdoo time as young Michael Vu dug his claws into Cougar Alex Schylegel sticking the sophomore to the mat and giving the Wildcats a 12-3 advantage. At 120 pounds Joey Nowak continued his winning ways defeating Matthew Upright. Nowak was up big early and on his way to a major decision, but some late match heroics from Upright tightened the score and put a scare into the Wildcat team. Nowak walked off the mat with a decision and helped Centreville distance themselves from Oakton for good. Now up 15-3 it was brothers Josh and Jerry Cowman’s turn to join in on the fracas. Josh ran into regionally ranked Eddie Gerow and lost a scrappy match with the Cougar junior. Josh came out aggressive, but came up a little short in the match and was eventually pinned by Gerow. After a forfeit for Centreville 132 pounder Connor Mitchell, Jerry Cowman squeezed Oakton’s Thomas Price tight to the mat for the fall, but not after the two tussled around scoring on each other throughout the tight match. Cowman defended a deep shot from Price and put the Cougar on his back for good getting the fall.
The Senior night crowed was beginning quiet down as their Cougars were taking a beating. Down 27-12 Oakton went on a short run, winning the next two bouts. Luis Rivera decisioned Dillon Dull, who couldn’t seem to generate any offense during his six minute scrap. At 152 pounds, junior Will Fulton seemed a little rusty after nursing a two week injury and he too came up a little short on points. Now only down 9 with two of their big cats left, Oakton seemed a little optomistic in defeating their rival Wildcats, but Tyler Love soon ended any hopes of a Cougar victory as he ambushed junior Matthew Notarangelo. Love and Notarangelo got tangled up in a fierce battle for much of the first period and part of the second until Love took a deep shot on Notarangelo and finished the takedown with a peterson picking up three nearfall points along the way. The melee continued in the third until the final buzzer blew. Love took a convincing victory and padded the Wildcat lead. At 170 pounds Co-Captain Ryan Sepulveda didn’t waste much time as he hammered Mattheew Moskowitz into submission mid way through the first period secureing the catfight for his Wildcats.
With only three matches left Will Johnson came out anxious to rip into Cougar Josh Newman, but got all balled up and found himself unable to fight off his back.
The match of the night was next uniting Wildcat C0-Captain David Chenevey and Austin Murga for the third time in two years. Suffering losses in the previous two bouts, Chenevey was relentless in his persuit of Murga. The two grappled feverishly for six long minutes with Chenevey capturing the one point decision seconds before the final buzzer rang. With thirteen matches down there was but one left. Joey Steinbach bulldozed Maxwell Dollard around for most of the first period getting a takedown and added some back points in the second period. Steinbach added another takedown and back points on his way to a major decision, putting the Wildcats up for good 43-21.
The Concorde Catfight went as most cat fights do, it was noisy, exciting, and someone always gets hurt. Wednesday nights rumble would prove to be no different as the Cougars were sent back to their den, ears pinned back licking their wounds. It was an exciting win for the Wildcats as they look forward to wrapping up their Concorde District Duals at Herndon next week.