By Ed Shepherd
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

Kennedy Catholic and Highline went at it on the mat in both schools' first Seamount League match of the season Thursday with the Pirates making a statement by flattening the Lancers, 61-18.

"Our boys are ready to go," said Casey Rice, the Pirates' fifth year head coach. "It's a good mix of youth and veterans. It's a good start, but a long ways to go."

The Pirates plowed through the matches, starting with 106-pound freshman Kevin Almazan beating his foe, Richie Wallace, by pin, 23 seconds into the match. At 113 pounds, freshman Kyle Herbruger received a win by forfeit. So right out of the gate, it was the home team on top, 12-0, and the score would get much more losided than that.

Next up, at 120 pounds, was little chance for the Lancers to get a first win of the match as the Pirates' Zach Edson, an eighth-place finisher at state in the Tacoma Dome last season, was on the floor. Before his Pirates teammates could get in more cheering than a "Let's go, Zach,'" it was over -- a 10-second pin in the first round.

Edson went to state for the first time as a sophomore, but he did not go to state to wrestle. He watched, and that turned out good, beneficial and motivating.

"I didn't make it to state my sophomore year, but I was able to go with the team to state," said Edson, a Pirates senior. "It was so great just being in that place, looking up at the ceiling. I was in amazement. All this glory."

That experience as a sophomore paved the way for Edson as a junior to finish as one of the best wrestlers in 2A in the state of Washington, finishing the season with a 30-8 record.

Next up in this match against the Lancers, at 126 pounds, came the Pirates' Michael Hall, a junior who pinned his foe in 1:45 of the first round. Then, at 132 pounds, Pirates freshman Lennon Alatorre won by pin 24 seconds into round one, so the team score favored the PIrates, 30-0, five wrestles into the match.
At 138 pounds freshman Jeffray Lizama won by forfeit for the Pirates, extending the lead to 36-0. His teammate, freshman Ty Shanklin, followed with a pin 15 seconds into the second round at the 2:15 mark, making it a 42-0 roll for the team in purple and gold tights.

At 152 pounds, senior Kelvin Herbruger for the Pirates got a pin at 3:26 in the second round and at 160 Pirates senior Jimmy Matta won his match by major decision, 13-4, staking his team to a 52-0 lead.
Matta's hoping to get to state and coach Rice pointed him out as a leader on the team.

"We just have to go 100 percent," said Matta. "Lindbergh got the title for league champs last year and we want to get that. I know myself and team go 100 percent in the wrestling room. At the end of the day, it's fun."

The Pirates took second in 2012, so that was a taste of near-success for wrestlers like Matta, Edson, all the guys now seniors or even juniors if they wrestled for the Pirates as freshmen.

"I like where we are headed," said Rice, reiterating, then, what he said earlier. "Still a long ways to go."
After Matta's decision win, seinor teammate Kelvin Herbruger got a pin at 5:38 of the third round, sending the score to 58-0, Pirates. That's, however, where the 10-straight wins ended, as the Lancers' Bowen McConnville, though a freshman, pinned his guy just 59 seconds into the first round, smoothing out the lopsided score ever so slightly, 58-6.

McConnville is young on the Lancers, but he went undefeated at Northwood Junior High his seventh and eight grade seasons as a wrestler there. That mark was achieved in the Kent School District, and that's the fourth largest in the state of Washington, with four high schools, six middle schools and 28 elementary schools. So, that's a big deal to go without a loss there.

"I would like to get to state," he said. "As a freshman getting to state, that would be good. Just got to bust it, getting good with my moves, working my moves to perfection."

Then, next wrestle, the Lancers benefited from a forfeit, with it's senior, 195 pound wrestler Ben Josie getting a win to cut the Pirates' lead to 58-12. Then, a hard-fought win went to the Pirates' 220 pound junior, Brian Womac over Alex Lesar, 4-1, changing the score to 61-12.

Helping the Lancers end the night with some avenue of respect was it's most heralded wrestler, senior Sebastian Ferraro, at 285 pounds, in the heavyweight class. It took Feraro less than a minute to nail his opponent to the canvas -- 49 seconds, to be exact.

"I went into it explosive, straight at him for a shot and used a double leg move," said Ferraro.
And that quick of a pin should not make anyone surprised as Ferraro took seventh in the state last season at the Tacoma Dome. He's also ranked very high now, going into this 2014-15 wrestling season.
"I was preseason ranked No. 2 in the state," said Ferraro, who mentioned Eddie Benge, at No. 6 in preseason rankings, who attended state last season, and, who wrestles at 285, too. However, Ferraro wrestled at 220 at state and is just trying to get down to that weight now following beefing up a bit for the Lancers' Seamount League football season that included another championship and state playoff make under head coach Bob Bourgette.

"I am trying to get my weight down, working on getting back to 220," said Ferraro.
Ferraro gives credit for some of his success wrestling to his sparring partner, Lesar, who also went to state last season for the Lancers, as a junior.

"I have a really good sparring partner, Alex," said Ferraro. "He didn't place at state, but he still got there."
And your coach?

"He's good, knows his stuff," said Ferraro.

The Lancers coach, Perry Sampley, is in his first season with the program there and said that he agrees that the wrestlers aforementioned have strong state potential and will lead the team this season.
"Good wrestlers," said Sampley, who wrestled in high school and collegiately. "I expect them to do very well."

Mentioning another wrestler for the Pirates who got to state but is not a guy wrestler is senior Sophia Munoz.

"I took fifth at state as a sophomore," she said after she did not wrestle on this night against the Lancers.
And, one might wonder why Munoz did not mention getting to state as a junior, and there's a good reason why it was unmentioned.

"I was out most of the season with an arm injury," she said. "I came back with only a week and a half left."
Not enough time, therefore, to get her body ready for the rigors of postseason wrestling, and, strengthening and such one could assume.

"It was difficult," she said. "I was out of condition with the injury. Everyone was saying something different, my doctors. They said it was the muscles and the ligaments. They were all jacked up."
So, a girl with the boys, what's that like, in wrestling?

"I love my teammates," Munoz said. "They are great, very encouraging. I couldn't ask for a better team."
And what's her goal for this season, besides to just stay healthy?
"Get to state and do some damage," she said.

So, on this night the damage was done by the Pirates, but, with Benge out there wrestling and the team improving under Sampley, the Lancers could do some good rolling by foes this season, too. Only time will tell just how good this season is for these teams and individuals. It's early, and a lot can happen between now and the end of the season. So, for both, it's a long road ahead, hopefully paved with much success down one road or another for each.