Wrestling Falls to No. 23 Rutgers on Senior Night, 28-9

Thursday, February 19

Daskalakis Athletic Center

7:00 p.m.

Drexel University

Rutgers

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Wrestling Falls to No. 23 Rutgers on Senior Night, 28-9

2/19/2015 8:49:00 PM | Wrestling

PHILADELPHIA - The Drexel wrestling team fell to the No. 23 Scarlet Knights, 28-9 on Senior Night at the Daskalakis Athletic Center Thursday evening. Prior to the matches, Drexel Wrestling honored five seniors, including active seniors Noel Blanco and Bryan Sternlieb, former wrestlers Jamie Callender and Nick Grinups, and manager Nikki Fern.

The dual started at the 133 pound match as No. 15 Kevin Devoy Jr. picked up a 4-2 decision over No. 17 Scott DelVecchio to give the Dragons a 3-0 advantage. Rutgers' Anthony Ashnault, who is currently ranked ninth in the nation, got the Scarlet Knights on the board with a win-by-fall over Andrew Mauriello. At 149, Rutgers' No. 18 Ken Theobold secured a 9-1 major decision over Matthew Cimato to give the Scarlet Knights a 10-3 lead. No. 13 Anthony Perrotti came up next and extended Rutgers' advantage to 15-3 with a technical fall over Blanco.

Nick Elmer got the Dragons back on the board by holding onto a 3-1 advantage to secure a victory at 165 over Rutgers' Mike Simmons. At 174, Stephen Loiseau took a hard-fought scoreless match into sudden victory, but was defeated as Phil Bakuckas recorded a take down. Now trailing the Scarlet Knights, 18-6, Alex DeCiantis battled through the 184 match and took it to overtime with a score of 1-1. The score remained unchanged through sudden victory, but DeCiantis was able to take down Anthony Pafumi with just seconds to go in the second overtime period to secure a 4-2 win.

Rutgers would go on to earn victories in the final three matches to defeat the Dragons, 28-9. With the loss, Drexel moves to 8-12 overall and remains 5-2 in conference action while Rutgers improves to 14-7. Next up, the Dragons will host No. 10 Nebraska on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. before heading down 33rd street to close out the regular season against Penn.

Rutgers (RU) 28, Drexel (DU) 9
133: No. 15 Kevin Devoy Jr. (DU) DEC No. 17 Scott DelVecchio (RU), 4-2
141: No. 9 Anthony Ashnault (RU) WBF Andrew Mauriello (DU) @ 2:52
149: No. 18 Ken Theobold (RU) MAJ Matthew Cimato (DU), 9-1
157: No. 13 Anthony Perrotti (RU) TF Noel Blanco (DU), 16-0
165: Nick Elmer (DU) DEC Mike Simmons (RU), 3-1
174: Phil Bakuckas (RU) DEC Stephen Loiseau (DU), 2-0 (SV)
184: Alex DeCiantis (DU) DEC Anthony Pafumi (RU), 4-2 (TB)
197: Hayden Hrymack (RU) DEC Brandon Litten (DU), 7-2
285: No. 15 Billy Smith (RU) MAJ Alex Foley (DU), 11-2
125: Josh Patrick (RU) DEC Zack Fuentes (DU), 7-5