Blog Post #5: News Post

         The Norton High School wrestling team took on the Hopkinton Hillers in a down-to-the-wire meet on February 4th. The match came down to the last bout where Andrew Murphy clinched the TVL championship for the Lancers, the sixth title in the last eight years.
     
         The Lancers were finally with all four of their captains back in the line, first time in six weeks. Captain Elliott Johnson a circuital wrestler came back from an elbow injury as well as captain Russell Hansen, while the Hillers were minus Kevin Wyatt. There was a very stressful ambiance in the gym of Hopkinton.
       
        The next meeting these wrestlers will see each other will be at the Massachusetts All-States tournament. Norton had won three back-to-back match ups that help them gain the lead. After a win by Cardone at the 160 pound bout, Johnson at the 170 bout, and Burgess at the 182 bout gave the Lancers a three-point lead. Norton now leads 30-27 after two heart-breaking loses by Adam Marcon and Alek Donovan to two very great opponents.

           Here in the last bout the title was on the line for both talented teams. The meet came down to Andrew Murphy of Norton against Ryan Mastroianni from Hopkinton. At the end of the first period the Mastroianni has taken the lead 2-0 over Norton's Andrew Murphy. With the second period on the way Murphy chooses the bottom positions. Here he stands up rapidly and now the match score is 2-1. going in  the the third Hopkinton chooses bottom where, where Murphy works on Ryan and turns him for a near-fall and picks up three points making the score 4-2. Now with a minute left Mastroianni stands up cutting the lead to one point, 4-3. Murphy says "it's like hanging off a cliff with the last couple of fingers in that last minute where you just play defense and hope for a win." As the whistle blows and the crowd of the Hillers go quite the Lancer wrestlers leap in joy and have a team hug celebrating their sixth TVL championship.

         At the meet clinching the win for the Lancers Andrew Murphy made The Boston GLobe for play of the week.