It came down to the wire for the Hofstra University wrestling team as they took on Long Island University on Feb. 10. It was all tied up going into the final match of the night at 141 pounds, but Justin Hoyle dug deep and won the match and the dual for the Pride 19-16.
Against his opponent, Devin Matthews, Hoyle came back from an early deficit after being taken down in the first period. Hoyle earned a takedown and near fall points in the second period to help even up the match. In the third period, Matthews was in on Hoyle’s legs, but Hoyle adjusted to earn a takedown of his own and win by decision 11-6.
Before Hoyle’s heroics, the Pride started the dual strong. At 149 pounds, Noah Tapia got the ball rolling with a 5-2 win by decision over Drew Witham. Frank Volpe wrestled for the Pride at 157 pounds, falling to Brayden Roberts 9-1.
No. 30 Kyle Mosher battled it out with Anthony Ferrari, the number one pound-for-pound high school recruit of 2024. Mosher was up 6-0 in the third period when Ferrari earned two takedowns, making the final score 8-6.
Eric Shindel and No. 25 Ross McFarland followed with a pair of wins by decision at 174 and 184 pounds respectively. Shindel beat Donavan Smith 4-3 while McFarland went into tiebreaker-3 against Anthony D’Alesio to win 6-2.
After the win, the Pride got into trouble in the following matches. At 197 pounds Nikolas Miller was pinned by Corey Connolly which brought the team score to 12-10, still in favor of Hofstra but narrowing the Sharks’ deficit. Danny Church and Dylan Acevedo lost their respective matches by decision at 285 and 125 pounds, respectively, to give the Sharks the lead at 12-16.
It all came down to the last two matches. Chase Liardi got to work against Sawyer Ostroff, earning seven points in the first period alone from a takedown and near fall points. In the second and third periods, Liardi continued to push the pace to win the match by major decision 15-1, just short of a win by technical fall.
Hoyle’s match secured the win and continued Hofstra’s perfect 10-0 record against LIU. The Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association win boosted Hofstra to 7-5 overall and 4-1 in the conference.
The Pride returned home for their final dual meet of the season against Drexel University on Sunday, Feb. 16 at 4 p.m.
