THE ANNUAL Brawl in the Hall was another epic matchup between Wakefield and Melrose with the Red Raiders getting the win 37-33. (Raj Das edphotos.com)
By CHARLES GAGNE
MELROSE — This year’s Brawl in the Hall, the annual wrestling match between the Melrose and Wakefield high school teams, was an intense battle between two evenly-matched teams that went down to the wire with the Red Raiders taking the win, and the Middlesex League Freedom Division title, by a score of 37-33. It was the first Brawl victory for Melrose since the 2019 season. The Warriors won the head-to-head matchup held at Melrose High last season and took the Brawl in the Hall in 2020.
The atmosphere at Memorial Hall on Wednesday night was electric and the energy level through the roof as the bouts got underway.
A Wakefield forfeit in the 106-pound weight class put the Melrose team up right away 6-0. Next, Gavin Bayers won his match against a tough Melrose opponent via a major decision with a final score of 12-4, putting Wakefield on the board.
It was then Bryan Fabbri’s turn to wrestle and he faced a fierce opponent in Sean Thomas who proved to be too much to handle, but Fabbri put up a great fight, falling in a major decision.
One of Wakefield’s top sophomore wrestlers, Andrew Valley, then took to the mat at 126 against Quinn Fogarty. Valley went up early with a big takedown and some back points. When his three rounds were finished, he had outscored his opponent 11-0, and the Wakefield crowd of students, family and friends were thrilled as Wakefield cut the Melrose lead to 10-8.
Tommy Grover, one of the Wakefield captains, faced a formidable Alex McLaughlin and was pinned in the second round. This put Melrose up 16-8.
Next up was Wakefield’s Oisin Cullen against Alex Tremblay. Cullen had an early takedown to gain two points and added to his lead from there. Cullen dominated the second round, increasing his lead to 14-3. In the third round, Cullen was in trouble when Tremblay got on top of him, but in a lightning-quick move, Cullen flipped him over and got on top for the pin. The Wakefield crowd went wild as the score turned to 16-14.
One of Wakefield’s top wrestlers, captain Nick Roberto, next ran to the mat full of energy. His match against Otto Albanese at 145 was incredibly intense and the first round ended with Roberto down 2-1. Roberto started on the bottom in round two and got up to tie the score 2-2. Roberto almost pinned Albanese in round two and the round ended with Roberto up 6-4. Roberto started on the bottom again for round three, and got out of the hold, going up 7-4. He was then taken down on his back, so that Albanese went ahead 9-7.
After the two wrestled out of bounds, Roberto elected to start on the bottom again and he reversed Albanese for two points making the score 9-9. With less than 30 seconds left in round three, Roberto got the pin to the delight of the Wakefield cheering section. As a result, Wakefield took its first lead of the brawl, going up 20-16.
Sean Callanan (152) and Zach Arria (160) both faced tough Melrose competitors in brothers Steve and Shea Fogarty and were pinned so that Melrose again regained the lead 28-20.
Theo Valenti then got ready for his match at 170 against Pedro Ribeiro. After a tight first round, Valenti was up 3-2. Valenti performed well in round two and increased his lead to 8-3. In round three, Valenti had another nice takedown and ended up winning his match by an 11-3 major decision. At this point, Melrose led Wakefield overall by a score of 28-24.
Valenti’s impressive performance was followed up by an incredible showing from Luke Ickes, who pinned Melrose’s Tommy Keefe at 182 within 40 seconds. Wakefield had regained the lead over Melrose as a result, 30-28.
Joe Lamonica then had a close match against Nico Chiulli at 195. The first round ended with Lamonica down 2-1. In the second round, Lamonica made a nice move to get around Chiulli but a reverse tied the score at 4-4. Chiulli eventually managed to pin Lamonica in 5:24 to give Melrose a 34-30 lead.
In the second-to-last match, Ben Burdetsky started with a takedown to go up 2-0 against Dom Delgado at 220. The round continued in an intense manner and Delgado went up 7-6. There were no points scored in round two. In round three, Burdetsky chose to start on the bottom and got himself up to tie the score at 7-7. Burdetsky then got behind his opponent to gain two points before Delgado reversed for two points, so that the score was tied at 9.
Delgado next gained 3 back points and Burdetsky reversed for two. Unfortunately, time ran out before Burdetsky could score more and his grueling bout ended with a Delgado 12-11 decision. Melrose had gained three more team points and led Wakefield 37-30.
Though Wakefield couldn’t win overall at this point, heavyweight Nathan Ickes still gave the crowd something to cheer about, as he gained four points to Braden Marceau’s zero in a decision victory, bringing the final to 37-33.
Wakefield head coach Ross Ickes, who earned his 400th career win when Wakefield beat Wayland last week, said about the Melrose team, “We respect them very much. They’re a tough team. They’re well coached. We knew it was going to be close. There were a couple of swing matches I thought we could’ve had but you know, it happens.”
The Wakefield wrestlers gave it their all and treated the huge crowd to an entertaining evening with nail-biting competition.
The Warriors (12-4) will now focus on tomorrow’s quad meet which will conclude their regular season as they travel to Saugus High to take on Saugus, Bishop Fenwick and Lynn Vocational Tech.