Wrestling: Buffalo Bulls 10, Eastern Michigan Eagles 22; Eagles Spoil Senior Day

In the final home dual meet of the year, the Buffalo Bulls couldn't hold on at the end to eke out a win over the visiting Eastern Michigan Eagles in what would be seniors Max Soria and Wally Maziarz's final home matches.

Max Soria kicked off the action at 125 pounds in dominating fashion with a 14-3 major decision victory over Blake Caudill. Soria dominated from whistle to whistle showing the sound technical wrestling skill that has been his trademark in his career for the Bulls. The win was Soria's 21st of the season.

At 133 Sean Peacock had a very tough test in Vince Pizzuto, who is a former NCAA qualifier, and Peacock wanted to keep his winning streak alive, and even took Pizzuto all the way to sudden death overtime. Peacock fought valiantly the whole match but was ultimately taken down in OT giving the junior Pizzuto the victory.

Colt Cotten, in his usual fashion, had an exciting match at 141 pounds with a 5-3 decision over Michael Shaw. The deciding factor in the match was at the end of the second period Cotten managed a beautiful reversal on Shaw that planted him on his back and put him up 4-0 heading into the final stanza.

There were several exciting matches, with Jason Estevez getting eked out by Michael Barber at 149 pounds, and Rrok Ndokaj's thrilling match against Devan Marry which came down to the wire with Ndokaj having Marry's leg, but was unable to complete the takedown to win the match. Wally Maziarz also had a down-to-the-wire match, which he should have won, because the referees bungled two calls. First, Maziarz looked to have had a takedown on the edge of the mat, but the ref called them out of bounds. Head Coach John Stutzman stormed out and asked for a replay, and it clearly showed that Maziarz was in bounds with his toes just inside, but the ref still called no takedown. Then, in the final seconds of the match, the refs didn't call a stalemate after roughly 30-45 seconds of no action while the two were scrambling on the mat, which ultimately led to Wally being taken down at the last second for the EMU victory.

Joe Ariola had a dominating victory over Mike Curby of EMU; Ariola, who dropped down to 184 from 197 showed off his power and strength as he controlled Curby with several takedowns to dominate the match. Then, at 197 pounds James Benjamin faced Anthony Abro, and it was by far the most exciting match of the dual meet. Benjamin executed a beautiful cradle takedown on the edge of the mat and wrestled soundly on top for the remainder of the 1st period to really wear Abro down. Through the 2nd and 3rd periods there was a lot of fun, back and forth wrestling between the two with Abro ultimately coming out on top 6-4. The victory by Abro sealed the dual win for EMU, but Mike Silvis also came out and wrestled an outstanding match, but his late attempt at a bear hug takedown backfired and cost him the match 6-3.

This match was close from wire to wire and only 1 UB wrestler lost by more than 3 points; I give credit to every guy for going out and wrestling their butts off trying to get Wally Maziarz and Max Soria a dual win in their final appearance at Alumni Arena. The Bulls will take to the mat one final time when they head to DeKalb to take on Northern Illinois this upcoming Friday.

Go Bulls!

Full Results:

125: Max Soria (UB) maj. dec. Blake Caudill (EMU), 14-3

133: Vince Pizzuto (EMU) SV1 Sean Peacock, 6-4

141: Colt Cotten (UB) dec. Michael Shaw (EMU), 5-3

149: Michael Barber (EMU) dec. Jason Estevez (UB), 2-0

157: Brandon Zeerip (EMU) maj. dec. Ryan Kromer (UB), 14-4

165: Devan Marry (EMU) dec. Rrok Ndokaj (UB), 4-3

174: Kayne MacCallum (EMU) dec. Wally Maziarz (UB), 4-2

184: Joe Ariola (UB) dec. Mike Curby (EMU), 6-1

197: Anthony Abro (EMU) dec. James Benjamin (UB), 6-4

HWT: Gage Hutchinson (EMU) dec. Mike Silvis (UB), 6-3

Updated Season Records: