Wrestling Earns 21-20 Tiebreaker Victory Over Army

Sunday, January 25

West Point, N.Y.

2:00 p.m.

Drexel University

Army

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Wrestling Earns 21-20 Tiebreaker Victory Over Army

1/25/2015 4:05:00 PM | Wrestling

West Point, N.Y. - The Drexel wrestling team pulled out a 21-20 victory over Army on Sunday afternoon to wrap up a two-game road trip to upstate New York. The dual ended with the two squads tied in team points, 20-20, but the Dragons won the tiebreaker by criteria after securing 48 match points to Army's 43.

The dual started off at 149 as Matthew Cimato earned a 6-2 decision over Army's Andrew Mendel to give Drexel and early 3-0 advantage. Noel Blanco followed with a 3-1 decision at 157 to increase the Dragons' lead to 6-0. Army retaliated as Chandler Smith picked up a major decision at 165 to put the Black Knights on the board and then Brian Harvey followed with a pin over Stephen Loiseau at 174 to give Army a 10-6 lead. The Black Knights earned a decision and a major decision at 184 and 197 respectively to pull ahead, 17-6 with four matches to go.

Joey Goodhart turned things around for Drexel as he earned a win-by-fall in the heavyweight match to cut Army's lead to 17-12. Eric Ochoa followed with a 6-2 decision in the 125 match to put the Dragons within two points of the Black Knights, 17-15. Kevin Devoy Jr., who is currently ranked 15th in the nation by the NCAA Coaches' Panel, came up next and secured a crucial technical fall at 133 to give the Dragons their first lead in five matches and a 20-17 advantage. In a last effort to regain the lead, Army picked up a decision at 141 to tie the team score at 20-20 after the last match of the dual. However, Drexel walked away with a 21-20 victory as a result of the match point tiebreaker.

With the victory, Drexel improves to 5-7 overall and 2-1 in EIWA action while Army moves to 2-5 on the season and 2-3 in conference.

Next up, the Dragons will travel to North Carolina to take on Duke and American on Jan. 31 before heading to Chapel Hill to take on North Carolina on Feb. 1.

Drexel (DU) 21, Army (A) 20
Criteria (Match Points: Drexel 48, Army 43)

149: No. 22 Matthew Cimato (DU) DEC Andrew Mendel (A), 6-2
157: Noel Blanco (DU) DEC No. 11 Russell Parsons (A), 3-1
165: Chandler Smith (A) MAJ Nick Elmer (DU), 12-3
174: No. 19 Brian Harvey (A) WBF Stephen Loiseau (DU) @ 6:25
184: Samson Imonode (A) DEC Jason Fugiel (DU), 5-2
197: No. 23 Bryce Barnes (A) MAJ Joshua Murphy (DU), 12-4
285: Joey Goodhart (DU) WBF David Farr @ 2:03
125: Eric Ochoa (DU) DEC Sean Badua, 6-2
133: No. 15 Kevin Devoy Jr. (DU) TF Christian Doyle, 17-0
141: Logan Everett (A) DEC David Pearce (DU), 9-7