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Gambill gambit pays off; Crusaders roll to a 72-3 victory over Hahnville

January 14th, 2016 | Written by: Editor


72	3

[NOTE: The scorecard photo is not clear as it was filled out with a very light pencil, and the TrackWrestling results were not available as of the publication of this article.]

"This was no typical 72-3 drubbing. Three matches had major ramifications attached to them re seeding at this weekend's Louisiana Classic. None of them disappointed."

The text above is how this piece was going to begin until Thursday morning when the editor learned the seeding of the Louisiana Classic will follow LHSAA state tournament seeding guidelines (with the exception of winning percentages by Divisions). Hence, two of the three matches referred to above will have no ramifications on LACL seeding at all.

First there was the third meeting at 195 lbs. between Brother Martin's Cole Alfonso and Hahnville's Trevon Honor. Someone needs to inform those two that every match does not have to go into the Tie-breaker periods. In the Jefferson Invitational finals Alphonso defeated Honor 8-5 after Tie-breaker #1. Later, at the Trey Culotta, Alfonso won 6-4 in a match that went to Tie-breaker #1. The odds had to be against this match ending up 1-1 after six minutes and 1-1 after seven as well. Yet it did, and in Tie-breaker #1 it was Honor again prevailing with a reversal and two nearfall points to take a 5-1 lead. Alfonso escaped and took Honor down, but Honor escaped for a 6-4 win.

Following that was the first meeting of two undefeated (in Louisiana) 220 lbs. combatants, Brother Martin's Jacob Clapp and Hahnville's Stephen Cloud. Both appeared to want to end the match quickly with throws from bear-hug set-ups, but neither allowed the other enough leverage to do so. After the first period there was no score. In the second Clapp scored an escape to take a 1-0 lead, but Cloud answered with a takedown. Clapp escaped again and added a takedown for a 4-2 lead. In the third Honor was able to escape to cut Clapp's lead to 4-3, and that was how the match ended. A rematch can be expected at the Louisiana Classic (barring any upsets) as Clapp should be seeded 2nd to Cloud's 3rd, behind top-seeded Rodrigo Diaz of Lafayette (all indications point to Diaz being the #1 seed this weekend).

The last match of the evening was the one everybody was waiting for, however. This was a rematch of the 138 lbs. Trey Culotta finals in which Hahnville's Nicholas Lirette pinned Brother Martin's Taylor Gambill in 3:11. While it was not a match that would determine seeding at the Louisiana Classic, it did not appear either of the wrestlers knew that.

Gambill took the initiative first with very deep shots, but Lirette was able to counter them all, and despite a lot of effort put forth by the Crusader, it was the Hahnville wrestler who scored a first period takedown. Gambill managed an escape and the period ended 2-1 in favor of Lirette.

Starting on the bottom at the beginning of the second period, Lirette escaped and took Gambill down again to forge a 5-1 lead. Gambill managed another escape to make the score 5-2, but things looked bleak for the Crusader's chances to win. Nobody told Gambill that, though.

Gambill escaped again to start the final two minutes and then tied the match with his first takedown of the evening. On top with less than a minute remaining, Gambill let the Tiger wrestler go, basically nullifying any overtime possibilities in favor of a "first takedown wins" scenario. After some terrific scrambles Gambill finally got the best of an upside down Lirette and was awarded his second takedown of the period. He was able to hang on until the buzzer sounded for a 7-6 win.

Speculation still exists that Lirette may compete at 132 lbs. at this weekend's Louisiana Classic. If he does not, he will retain a #1 seeding at 138 lbs. as his win over Gambill was in a tournament. If he does drop to 132 lbs. he and Coach Dan Erwin deserve accolades for giving Gambill another shot at him (no pun intended despite that it is so perfect!).

[The editor understands that he published a potential LACL seeds article Wednesday evening under the assumption that this match might count in Gambill's favor. That was prior to the editor being made aware of the LACL seeding committee's guidelines. Thanks to Coach Ben Capella for informing the editor of that fact.]

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