Davison’s AJ Facundo, left, holds onto Detroit Catholic Central’s Stone Moscovic’s leg during a match Thursday, Jan. 19, 2017 at Davison Middle School.
Photo gallery: Wrestling: Novi Detroit CC 32, Davison 22
Photo gallery: Wrestling: Novi Detroit CC 32, Davison 22
DAVISON — Novi Detroit Catholic Central’s top-ranked wrestling team scored three pins and got bonus points from four of its five returning state champions in a 32-22 victory Thursday night over host and second-ranked Davison.
Two state champs — Kevon Davenport at 135 pounds and Tyler Morland at 171 — joined Connor Curnutte at 189 to win by fall for Catholic Central.
In front of a packed crowd at Davison Middle School, Catholic Central bolted to a 17-6 lead after six matches. Davison fought back with a win from Brian Case at 152 and a major decision by Cal Stefanko at 160 to close the gap to 17-13.
But Morland and Curnutte followed with consecutive pins to bump Catholic Central lead to 29-13. Morland pinned Trevor McGowan in 31 seconds and Curnutte pinned Brian Schaffer at 1:41 of the first period.
“A win’s a win,” Catholic Central coach Mitch Hancock said. “I don’t like to say that too much, but you come into an opposing gym like this that’s loud and crowded. We lost too many close matches. We’ve got to find a way to win those matches. And we will by the state tournament and we’ve proved that.”
Catholic Central clinched the dual at heavyweight with returning champ Nick Jenkins’ 3-1 overtime win against Arron Gilmore for a 32-16 lead with two matches left. This came after Davison defending state champ Brenden McRill bumped up from 189 to 215 to score a victory over second-ranked Jack Ross. Davison won the last two matches of the night at 103 and 112 by Andrew Chambal and Steven Garty, respectively.
That left Davison coach Roy Hall doing a lot of math in his head when he sized up how far back his squad was from Catholic Central.
“Ten points behind with about six weeks to go,” he said. “If we win one match, give us three and take away three from them. What’s the differential now? …
“So those points, we’ll try to figure those out. Both teams will and we’ll make adjustments. And guys got to wrestle, too, man. If you’re outclassed, you can’t get pinned. If you’re supposed to win, you’ve got to win by eight, you’ve got to look for a fall. And those are what state championship teams do.”
The dual started off with a bang at 119 when Davison’s Jaron Wilson gave returning state champ Ben Kamali a run for his money early, tying the match at 2-2 with a nearfall to start the second period. But Kamali quickly scored a reversal and almost pinned Wilson with seconds left in the second period as he built a big lead on his way to an 11-3 win.
At 125, Davison’s AJ Facundo showed why he’s a two-time state champ. He toyed with Catholic Central’s Stone Moscovic, peeling off three quick takedowns in the first period. He followed that with a beautiful five-point move on a granby roll for a reversal and nearfall. But Moscovic scored a moral victory with a late escape that kept Facundo’s 13-6 win to the minimum three-point decision.
At 130, Catholic Central’s Logan Sanom won, 5-4, when Raymond Cole couldn’t escape in the final seconds near the edge of the mat.
Catholic Central took a commanding 13-3 lead with Davenport’s pin of Grayson Rohart at 135 pounds with 49 seconds left in the first period. Davenport is a returning champ and the top-ranked wrestler at 135.
At 140, Davison claimed its second win of the night with Ryan Schlak’s 5-3 victory over Joey Urso.
Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.
Be sure to follow Freep Sports on Twitter (@freepsports) and Instagram and like us on on Facebook.