West Point, NY – Hofstra tallied three pins in the first match of the season, but suffered a 30-18 defeat to Army West Point Sunday afternoon from inside the Gillis Field House.
Hofstra opens the season to a 0-1 record with today's loss, while Army West Point moves to 1-0.
The match began with the Pride forfeiting at 125 pounds. Redshirt senior
Garrett Lambert scored the first points of the afternoon for Hofstra with a win via fall over Mark Montgomery at 2:53 in the 133 pound bout. Lambert led 4-1 over Montgomery late in the opening period thanks to two takedowns, and he locked up the Black Knight freshman wrestler in a cradle move in the final 10 seconds to secure his first win of the season.
Redshirt senior
Vinny Vespa at 141 pounds and redshirt junior
Charlie Kane at 149 pounds both saw defeat on the mat today. Vespa wrestled to a 13-4 major decision loss to Logan Brown, while Kane was pinned at 2:10 of his match by PJ Ogunsanya.
Sophomore
Holden Heller picked up his first pin of the season in an upset victory over Markus Hartman at 2:13 at 157 pounds. Heller fought hard to secure a takedown at 1:24 before driving Hartman, who has received top-15 rankings from numerous publications, to his back and securing the pin seconds later. Junior
Reece Heller followed up brother Holden at 165 pounds, but he was defeated via a 6-1 decision by Beau Guffey.
In a thrilling match at 174 pounds, redshirt freshman
Ross McFarland scored a pin with three seconds remaining in the third period to win via fall over Brad Laughlin. McFarland trailed 2-1 for most of the match against Laughlin, but saw the match tied at 2-2 in the third period after Laughlin was called for stalling with 13 seconds left. McFarland soon broke down Laughlin's position and forced him onto his back, where he quickly got his win before time expired.
Redshirt senior
Charles Small sustained an injury during his match at 184 pounds, and was forced to withdraw in the second period. Junior
Trey Rogers lost, 3-2, in a hard-fought match at 197 pounds against nationally ranked JT Brown. In the final match of the contest, redshirt junior
Zachary Knighton-Ward was defeated, 4-0, by Ben Sullivan in a tough match for the two returning NCAA qualifiers.
There were also a number of extra matches held that would count towards the individual wrestler's records, but not the team score. In addition to Knighton-Ward wrestling in a second match, competing for Hofstra in these matches were freshmen
Joe McGinty (157),
James Watterson (174) and
Ericson Velasquez (184), redshirt freshman
Ben Somerville (197), sophomore
Justin Hoyle (141), and redshirt sophomore
Matthew Templeton (133).
The Pride will wrestle again on Sunday, January 24, at 12 p.m. against EIWA-rival Long Island University in Brookville, N.Y.
Notes:
-Today's match was the first meeting between Hofstra and Army West Point since January 2017, a 34-3 win for the Black Knights.
-McFarland picked up the first win via fall of his Hofstra wrestling career, while Lambert earns his sixth-career win via fall and Heller won the fifth match by pin of his Hofstra career.
Army West Point 30, Hofstra 18
Extra matches
