Mattituck pins Babylon for first loss on the wrestling mat

Ryder Antonucci is one hungry young man — hungry to return to the state wrestling championships and improve on a disappointing showing last year. 

“I’m pretty eager to go,” he said. “In every practice, my goal is states. All I think about is states, hoping to get back, hoping to do better than last year.”

Antonucci did not win a match at the 2025 tournament. This year’s competition is set for MVP Arena in Albany on Feb. 27 and 28.

The Mattituck/Greenport/Southold senior took another step in that direction, winning his 144-lb. match, pinning Babylon’s Nicholas Longo in three minutes and 36 seconds in a dual home meet on Friday, Jan. 9.

“He’s working really hard in the room to get back up there,” head coach Ryan Grebe said. “That’s his goal. We’re doing everything possible that we can do to make sure that he’s in good shape for the finals.”

That would be the Suffolk County tournament on Feb. 13.

On this Friday night, Antonucci was more concerned about the match in front of him.

“I was able to stick to my game plan, just score points, look for the pin, which I eventually got in the second period,” he said. “Just trying to keep the vibes up for the team. This is a big win for our team, and we’re hoping to keep the ball moving.”

It certainly was. Babylon (2-1) entered the dual meet undefeated before the Tuckers (3-0) recorded a 53-24 League VIII victory on Alumni Night.

“To come out here in our own gym with our home crowd, it just means a lot, especially my senior year, my last year, to get a big win like this,” Antonucci said.

Grebe appreciated the team’s impressive performance.

“They’re one of the best teams in our league,” he said. “So, it’s nice to put up 50 points to get to a team like that … The matches that we knew were going to be tough were tough.

“They just didn’t stop wrestling for the whole six minutes.”

Some of those matches did not last six minutes as the Tuckers recorded six pins, including Antonucci.

“He’s just very calm, cool and collected right now,” Grebe said. “Nothing fazes him, even if he gives up a take down. Nothing in the match is throwing him off. He’s keeping his cool, and he’s just wrestling. That’s all I ask of him, and he’s working really hard.”

Antonucci, who is 12-5 this season, shared his philosophy.

“I’ve learned to kind of just wrestle my match, not let my opponent dictate the match,” he said. “Kind of just shoot my shots, do my own game plan, not work into theirs.”

He wasn’t the only Tucker who acquitted himself well. Last year, eight Tuckers wrestlers earned All-County honors. Six returned this year. In the win over the Panthers, five of those grapplers won their matches.

Those five other results: 

• Junior Kevin Collins (110) pinned Jack Margolis in 66 seconds.
• Sophomore Elliott Sirico (132) pinned Paul Isolkas in 2:51.
• Junior Jack Buonaiuto (150) won by forfeit.
• Senior Colin Heeg (118) pinned Travis Desmond in 1:23.
• Junior Joseph Martocchia (285), a two-time All-County selection, lost by decision to Lucus Norinder, 18-14, in one of the more dramatic and entertaining matches.

In other Mattituck wins, Kai Bossen (138) defeated Nathaniel Theoharis by a superior decision, 19-2; Luis Montecinos Sanchez (175) pinned William Verdi in 3:42; Alexander Felakos (190) pinned Joseph Parendo in 3:41; and Owen Edgett (157) won by forfeit.

In perhaps the most dramatic match of the evening, Cooper Alberti decisioned Mattituck’s Aidan Walters, 10-9, at 103 lbs., Babylon’s Erik Desmond pinned Gavin Gilbert at 165 in 5:03, and Alperen Bodur pinned Kevin Perez at 285 in 3:07.

Just as important as winning, Grebe has been encouraged by the improvement his wrestlers have made.

“They’ve improved so much,” he said. “We look at some of the matches that we wrestled earlier in the year, and then we look at just after Christmas, how much we’ve gotten better. We wrestled a really tough, Rocky Point team before Christmas, and they put up 60 points on us. We go out there right after Christmas, we lose by one match. These guys have been working really, really hard in the room. They’re hungry. The bar is high. I’m really proud of them.”