Above: Jake Srednicki of Mahopac won an 8-2 decision over Carmel’s Chris Pecora at 145 pounds last Thursday at Carmel. Left: Max Bachmeier of Mahopac pinned Carmel’s Brian Callahan in the 138-pound weight class at Carmel last week. MAHOPAC—After spending almost two weeks wrestling at tournaments throughout the Northeast, the Mahopac High wrestling team got back into league competition this week and picked up two wins. After opening with Tuesday’s 48-33 win at Yorktown High, the Indians (16-4, 3-0) beat Carmel, 60- 17, at Carmel last Thursday and have now won 13 straight dual meets.

The Indians dominated the Rams throughout Thursday’s match, and picked up seven first-period pins.

Mahopac’s Mike Dinardo (106) pinned John Knox at the one minute mark, Zack Boker (120) pinned Carmel’s Dominic Caporale at 1:34. At 126 pounds, Mike Camastro of Mahopac pinned Vincent DeBellis at 1:45.

Photos by Skip Pearlman Max Bachmeier (138) pinned the Rams’ Brian Callahan 1:49 into their match, and Indians 160-pounder Aaron Gallagher pinned Jack Mulcahey at 1:53. Tim Bunyea (170) pinned Ryan Morin of Carmel at 1:25, and Mike Spinelli (195) pinned John Lamonica 30 seconds into their match.

In addition to the early pins, the Indians’ Joe Frezza won a 4-2 decision against Kevin Knox at 99 pounds. At 132 pounds, Dan Walsh earned a 4-1 win over Brendan Dehn, 145-pounder Jake Srednicki beat Carmel’s Chris Pecora, 8-2, and 220-pounder Tyler Otero beat Joe D’Angelo, 5-2.

Thomas D’Ambrosio (113) and Vince Pecora (152) picked up wins for the Rams. D’Ambrosio pinned Paul Caruso at 1:55 while Pecora beat Joe Castellito, 15-0. Carmel’s AJ Alvarez also took a win via forfeit at 182 pounds.

“Carmel is a program that has a strong wrestling tradition, they’re always tough, they always have really tough kids,” coach Dennis DiSanto said. “They’re a little down this year, but we just continued to wrestle well and got a good performance against them.”

Rams coach Bill Twardy said “Mahopac is a very formidable team, and they came on strong. Chris Pecora had a very tough match against Srednicki, and Tom and Vince had good matches.”

Against Yorktown, the Indians won a hard fought match against one of the section’s best teams and clinched at least a share of the league title.

“That was a big one because they’re a good team, they’re ranked fifth in the section going into it,” DiSanto said.

Starting at 152 pounds, the meet opened with two must win matches that the Indians won with a pair of comebacks. First it was Castellito who turned a 3-0 deficit into a 5-3 overtime win, then it was Gallagher who pinned his opponent while trailing 6-5.

“Both of those were two big matches because I felt that we needed to win both of them,” DiSanto said. “I was kind of figuring where we would beat them and where we wouldn’t, and those were two must win matches. So were able to start off coming from behind in both of them and that kind of set the pace for the rest of the match.”

Dinardo, Caruso, Srednicki and Spinelli all pinned their opponent. Frezza beat Nick Belmonte 15-0, while Camastro won a 9-0 major decision over James Kaishian, who entered the match 18-3.

Carmel also placed eighth (out of 16 teams) at the Beacon Tournament Saturday at Beacon HS. Valley Central was first, Washingtonville placed second, and Arlington was third.

Chris Pecora won a title at 145 pounds, going 4-0 and improving his season mark to 22-7. Vince Pecora took a third at 152, going 4-1 and upping his record to 21-8. Alvarez earned a fourth place at 182 pounds, and went 3-2, and Tom D’Ambrosio (113) and Kevin Knox (99) both took sixths.

“We had a nice showing,” Twardy said. “It’s a tough tournament, and our team is a rebuilding year, so it was a nice showing. Chris Pecora wrestled very well… Vince and had a tough match in the semifinals. AJ also lost a tough one in the consolation round.”

Last Tuesday, and Rams picked up a 44-40 win over John Jay CR in a dual meet at Cross River.

Knox won via forfeit at 99, Caporale also won by forfeit at 113, D’Ambrosio won by tech fall at 120, Flavio Quezada won by pin at 126, Chris Pecora and Vince Pecora each won via pin – for Chris Pecora it was the 100th win of his career - Mulcahey won a decision at 160, and Alvarez was a winner via pin at 182.

Carmel was set to visit Beacon today (Thursday) at 4:30 p.m., and the Rams host the Super 16 Tournament Saturday.

The Indians will host Somers today at 4:30 p.m., and a win would give the Indians sole possession of the league championship. After that they will participate in the Super 16 Saturday at Carmel.