BUCKLAND — Make it two dual wins in a row to open the season for the Franklin Tech wrestling team.
After beating Hampshire in its season opener, the Eagles traveled to Buckland on Wednesday and came away with a second straight victory.
Franklin Tech won three of the five matches wrestled while taking seven matches via forfeit to walk away with a 60-24 victory over the host Warriors.
“We’re young but the kids are working hard,” Eagle coach Mike Aiken said. “The work ethic is there and the athletic ability is there. It’s just a matter of when we’re going to start turning the corner and learning how to be wrestlers. I’m excited about some of our young guys and the year our two seniors are going to have.”
While this was an independent win, Franklin Tech feels it has the team to compete with anyone in a tough Suburban League North.
“We have kids coming back. Once we’re at full strength we think we can be competitive with every team in our league. Athol looks really tough, Mahar will always be tough, Granby we tied last year, South Hadley is new. The kids are coming along and I’m excited to see what we can do.”
With just eight wrestlers, it’s going to be tough for the Warriors to come away with dual meet wins against teams like Franklin Tech who have a full lineup.
Still, coach Bob Mastorakis said he likes the way his team is coming along thus far.
“We’re pretty happy with what happened with the results tonight,” Mastorakis said. “We’re a young team. We know we have two kids with a lot of experience who were able to do well in their matches. We’re very happy with that. We also have kids who are learning. They’re learning every day and that’s what we want out of this. This was a great learning experience for them tonight.”
Carsten Couture, Maxon Brunette and Jacob Martin were the Eagle winners on Wednesday. Couture secured a pin with two seconds to go in the opening round against Warrior Luke Read at 120. Read was coming off a win against Gateway that helped Mohawk Trail come away with a team victory over the Gators.
Brunette came away with a first period pin against Dakota Chapin at 126 while Martin also had a first period pin, his against Oliver Schwenger-Sartz at 157.
Logan Moore had the first win of the day for the Warriors, earning a first period pin over Eagle Dylan Gilbert at 150. Mohawk Trail’s Will VanVleet closed things out with a first period pin against Atlithonatiu Gonzalez Jayne at 215.
Pathfinder 41, Frontier 30 — Konnor James (150), Edward Mieczkowski (175) and Javion Cabrera (285) each earned wins via pin for the Redhawks in a loss to Pathfinder on Wednesday.
Jocelyn Antes (120), Wyatt Finch (132), Ben Baker (138) and Zach Brown (144) also competed for Frontier.