FHHS Wrestling Outmatched By Bronx High School Of Science, 69-12

In a battle for second place playoff seeding, Forest Hills High School varsity wrestling team jumped off to a solid start, but proceeded to fall into a downward spiral that resulted in a 69-12 defeat to Bronx High School of Science Wednesday night.

After winning their first match by pin and the next on points, the Rangers (7-2) established an early 9-0 lead. It was short lived as Bronx High of Science rolled off 11 consecutive wins for the dominating victory.

Hero: It was a total team effort for the Wolverines, a gifted group of grapplers, as they came ready to wrestle, with eight of their 11 wins coming via pin. Special mention needs to be made of Bronx’s Muhtasham Sifaat and Michael Palamara, whose early-match pins came in back-to-back at under one minute each, and set the tone for the rest of the night.

 The Turning Point: With Hussam Abosrie, one of the stars on Forest Hills’ roster, not able to make weight, coach Stephen Serio bumped him up, forcing him to wrestle a foe who outweighed him by 15 pounds.

Competing at a clear disadvantage, Abosrie was pinned, extending the Wolverines lead. Bronx Science, totally amped up, celebrated the big match victory away from the mat, with enough momentum and energy to carry them through the rest of the night.

Bottom Line: The Wolverines wanted it more, Serio noted, taking advantage of three Forest Hills wrestlers who failed to make weight, putting the squad in a hole it was hard to climb out of going into the match.

Quotable: Serio said the poor showing was due mostly to two weeks of awful practices, and said he hopes  that the Rangers will get back to form as they prepare for the upcoming playoffs.

"They came in and were clearly the better team tonight," Serio said. "My guys, the last two weeks of practice have been real bad — not motivated. Not to take that away from them (Wolverines), because they came out and hustled. My guys obliviously didn’t today. But this is a big wakeup call for my guys on how important practice is. We go back to practice tomorrow, and hopefully it improves, and we go into the playoffs from here."

Who’s Next? Forest Hills awaits its first round opponent in the division B playoffs, which begin on Tuesday, Jan. 19.

 Box Score: