LEXINGTON, Va. - Liberty won eight of 10 matches, including the last five by major decisions, to score a 29-7 win in non-conference wrestling action Wednesday evening at The Thunderdome.
A major decision by VMI's Michael Long at 149 lbs. cut the Liberty advantage to 9-7, but the Flames answered with five straight bonus-point wins to claim their fourth straight win over the Keydets. With the win, LU improves to 7-7 on the season, while VMI falls to 5-6 with the loss.
The Keydets got out to an early lead, thanks to junior Josh Wine, who remained undefeated at heavyweight. The Keydet took a 1-0 lead in the second period with an escape, but Josh Pelletier matched that with his own escape in the third. After a scoreless sudden victory period, Pelletier chose the bottom position for the first tiebreaker period. Wine was able to control throughout the 30 seconds, and in the second tiebreak, Wine began on bottom and scored a reversal, then rode out Pelletier to score the 3-1 win.
The Flames answered back with a 5-3 decision by Jonathan Childress at 125 lbs. Childress scored a takedown and three-point near fall in the first period, then held on for the two-point win over VMI's John Pope. The visitors took their first lead thanks to Joe Pantaleo's 8-3 decision at 133 lbs. Todd took a 2-0 lead with an early takedown in the first period, however Pantaleo took a 3-2 advantage before the end of the period. Pantaleo scored two more takedowns the rest of the way, putting the Flames up, 6-3.
The 141-pound match began much the same way, as VMI's David Yost went up 2-0 early but trailed 3-2 by the end of the period to LU's Scott Clymer. Yost began the second period on bottom and surrendered two back points before escaping. Trailing 5-3 entering the third period, Yost scored an early takedown to tie the match, but surrendered an escape, and eventually, the riding time point, to fall, 7-5.
With the Keydets down 9-3, Long took the mat at 149 lbs. The senior scored a 12-2 major decision over Joey Montgomery, scoring three takedowns, a reversal and three back points, along with the riding time point to bring VMI within two points with five matches remaining.
The Flames got on a roll from there, scoring their five consecutive major decisions. Shaun Smith scored the first of them at 157 lbs., outlasting Joe Munno, 16-5. Chad Porter then followed suit at 165 lbs., coming up with an 11-1 win over Conor Black. Brad Clark, Nick Knowles and Jacobi Johnson rounded out the match with 10-2, 15-5 and 10-2 wins at 174, 184 and 197 lbs., respectively.
"Liberty has a nice team, they won a lot of hard-fought matches tonight," said VMI head coach John "Rocky" Trudgeon. "I thought the first seven matches were really hard-fought, and then in the last couple, we got soft and we didn't wrestle well technically. I really commend what we did in those first seven matches, and even Vinnie (Gallo), who got off to a horrible start, really controlled those last three minutes. We just have some guys that need to wrestle tougher, and that was disappointing. We've got a big week coming up at VMI, so we've got to get through that and then recover for the All-Academy Championships. That's a big event for us, and we're really looking forward to it."
VMI returns to action on Saturday, Feb. 6 traveling to Annapolis, Md. for the 16th Annual All-Academy Championships, being hosted by Navy.
Liberty 29, VMI 7 (Jan. 27, 2010)
285- Josh Wine (VMI) dec. Josh Pelletier (LU) 3-1 (TB2)
125- Jonathan Childress (LU) dec. John Pope (VMI) 5-3
133- Joe Pantaleo (LU) dec. Luke Todd (VMI) 8-3
141- Scott Clymer (LU) dec. David Yost (VMI) 7-5
149- Michael Long (VMI) maj. dec. Joey Montgomery (LU) 12-2
157- Shaun Smith (LU) maj. dec. Joe Munno (VMI) 16-5
165- Chad Porter (LU) maj. dec. Conor Black (VMI) 11-1
174- Brad Clark (LU) maj. dec. Andrew Szymborski (VMI) 10-2
184- Nick Knowles (LU) maj. dec. Vinnie Gallo (VMI) 15-5
197- Jacobi Johnson (LU) maj. dec. Ronnie Ellsworth (VMI) 10-2
