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Central Catholic Raiders Wrestling '16-'17

Wed, Jan 11, 2017 07:00 PM @ Central Catholic
Team Final
Chelmsford 24
Central Catholic 39

Onyemem sparks huge win

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LAWRENCE — Central Catholic senior David Onyemem admits that, at first, wrestling was not much to his liking.

Persuaded to join the team by fellow football player and star heavyweight Carlos Cabrera, Onyemem found the practices and the training more than difficult.

"Practice is a grind and at the beginning it was really tough," said Onyemem. "It wasn't much fun. But the coaches said it'd get better and said I'd start to like it."

Wrestling may never match football, but he certainly enjoyed it Wednesday when his 7-5 decision at 195 pounds sparked Central to a 39-24 win over Chelmsford, which had been ranked the No. 1 team in Eastern Mass. The Raiders had been losing until his match.

"It was definitely thrilling to get the team going," said Onyemem, whose takedown in the final seconds sealed the win. "I had a lot of buddies there supporting me and the crowd really got into it. It feels good that the hard work is paying off and it's really satisfying beating a team like Chelmsford."

Central coach Jamie Durkin, whose team improved to 9-0, isn't surprised by Onyemem's rapid development.

"He's a gifted athlete, he works hard and he listens to everything you tell him," said Durkin. "The wrestling part is starting to click.

"This is a big win for us. We thought it would be about 7-7 in matches and it would come down to tossup matches."

In addition to Onyemem's win, sophomore Jackson Clark had a key 6-2 decision at 152 pounds, coming after Chelmsford had won three straight.

"I was glad to get the team going," said Clark. "Even before the match, we were all pumped up for this."

The Raiders had three pins on the night, which was one more than Chelmsford. Recording falls were 160-pounder Connor Murphy, 220-pounder Jose Penalo and heavyweight Cabrera, the latter in 35 seconds. Tyler Glynn had a solid 7-1 decision at 120.

Now 9-0, Central hosts a big quad-meet Saturday with Lawrence, Haverhill and Billerica.

 

 

 

 

Game Statistics:

Local winners:

106: ; 113: Greg Spero by forfeit; 120: Tyler Glynn dec. 7-1; 126: Joe Sanchez by forfeit ; 132: ; 138: ; 145: ; 152: Jackson Clark dec. 6-2; 160: Connor Murphy pin :52; 170: ; 182: ; 195: David Omemyen dec. 7-5; 220: Jose Penalo pin 1:35; HVY:Carlos Cabrera pin :35 

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