Schools

Mansfield High Wrestling Earns Win at Stoughton

The Mansfield Hornets beat the Black Knights 51-30 Thursday in Stoughton. Sean Flaherty and Bryan Nguyen earned individual wins for Stoughton.

The Mansfield High wrestling team ran off a string of eight consecutive individual victories Thursday evening at , leading to a 51-30 win over the Black Knights.

Stoughton falls to 0-3 on the season, while Mansfield improves to 3-3.

Despite the score, there were plenty of positives for Stoughton to take away, starting with Sean Flaherty (182-pound match) and Bryan Nguyen (220-pound match), who earned Stoughton’s two individual wins.

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“Sean had a great match; he’s been doing really good lately. He got a really good ankle pick ,” Stoughton coach Justin Leonard said.

Leonard was also impressed with Nguyen, a freshman, who is being groomed as the team’s future heavyweight after senior Andrew “Paco” Paredes graduates.

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“Bryan just cut down to 220-pounds. I feel like he’s going to do great at that weight class,” Leonard said. “He’s a freshman. He’s been training with Paco non-stop.”

Stoughton jumped out to a 12-0 lead when Mansfield didn’t contest the 106 and 113-pound matches. But, the Hornets put together eight straight wins to go up 45-12 heading into Flaherty’s match.

“The match was really good,” Mansfield coach Eric Farley said. “We had a down night Tuesday against Brockton so these guys [were] coming off a pretty bad loss and so we turned it around in practice and they executed a lot of the things that we worked on in practice here in the match.

“It was a good match for us technique-wise to really implement what these guys need to be doing at this point in the season.”

Mansfield’s Sam McLoughlin edged Mike Cardoso in the 126-pound match. And John Carney scored a come from behind win for the Hornets against Kevin Richard in the 145-pound match.

“[Richard] had a great match. He was doing awesome against [Carney]. He was stuffing all of his takedowns,” Leonard said. “He just made a wrong turn and got caught—it happens in wrestling. All you can do is practice your scrambles a little bit better and hope for the best next time.”

After the 145-pound match went back-and-forth, Mansfield turned in three quick wins in a row from Dan Gilmore (152), Derrion Walker (160) and Tyler Budwey (170), to increase the lead from 27-12 to 45-12.

“Momentum shift is huge in this sport,” Farley said, “and so to have quick pin, quick pin, quick pin, it just feeds in.”

Stoughton took two of the final three matches (Flaherty and Nguyen) and picked up the final points of the night when Mansfield did not contest the heavyweight match.

“We’re a young team, we have a lot of freshmen. [But] this is probably the best group of freshmen I’ve ever seen,” Leonard said. “They’re all dedicated. They always want to learn more moves. They always want to practice more. They never complain. It’s really the best I could ask for. We just need more time.”

Stoughton takes part in a quad meet at Quincy on Thursday, Dec. 29. Mansfield, meanwhile, takes part in the Marshfield Tournament Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

Individual Results

  • 106 – No Contest (Stoughton win)
  • 113 – No Contest (Stoughton win)
  • 120 – Paul Bezreh (Mansfield) def. Michael Johnson (Stoughton)
  • 126 – Sam McLoughlin (Mansfield) def. Mike Cardoso (Stoughton)
  • 132 – Joe Herrick (Mansfield) def. Spencer Dennis (Stoughton)
  • 138 – Tom Maguire (Mansfield) def. Mike Dixon (Stoughton)
  • 145 – John Carney (Mansfield) def. Kevin Richard (Stoughton)
  • 152 – Dan Gilmore (Mansfield) def. Robert Mone (Stoughton)
  • 160 – Derrion Walker (Mansfield) def. Stephen Strenstorm (Stoughton)
  • 170 – Tyler Budwey (Mansfield) def. Jordan Elkery (Stoughton)
  • 182 – Sean Flaherty (Stoughton) def. Ryan Boyd (Mansfield)
  • 195 – Zach Schafer (Mansfield) def. Dan Dugan (Stoughton)
  • 220 – Bryan Nguyen (Stoughton) def. Sam Caskey (Mansfield)
  • 285 – No Contest (Stoughton win)


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