One of the Mid-American Conference's most dominant team's, the No. 17 ranked Central Michigan Chippewas, visited Alumni Arena Saturday night looking to throttle the "overachieving" UB Bulls.
And that they did.
Buffalo (10-4, 1-2 Mid-American Conference) was game, but unable to hang with the high-octane Chippewas (9-4, 3-0 MAC) and fell by a score of 32-6.
The matches got underway with the Bulls' freshman Mark McKnight against Amateur Wrestling News' 19th ranked Kyle Stoffer in the 125-pound weight class.
AWN ranks wrestlers 1-20 in each weight class.
The match was tied at three points apiece when McKnight turned it on. He finished strong to defeat the highly touted Stoffer 5-4, giving the Bulls a 3-0 lead along with plenty of optimism.
"It felt great to get out there and beat a kid at that level of competition," said McKnight. "It makes me feel aware of what not only I can accomplish, but what our entire team can achieve in this conference."
The Bulls took a serious blow during the third match however, as Mike Trotta sustained what appeared to be a high ankle injury.
"He (Trotta) rolled over his ankle," said UB's head coach Jim Beichner. "Tests have not returned from the hospital yet, but we have reason to believe his ankle is not broken. Mike landed hard, but I think it's just a bad sprain."
UB tried to get back on track when No. 19 ranked Ed Pawlak took on Central Michigan's Kevin Carr in 174-pound weight class. The regulation session ended tied at one, and stayed that way after three overtimes. In the fourth overtime session Carr was able to escape and a score takedown to earn the victory by a score of 4-2.
As always, the Bulls found a bright spot in their super-sized junior from Lewsiton, N.Y., and human highlight reel, Kyle Cerminara. Weighing in at 197 pounds, the 19th ranked Cerminara handled the highly-touted Chippewa senior Joe Yager. Cerminara easily won 7-3, improving to 31-3 for the season, and bringing the score to 28-6.
Beichner knows what Cerminara is all about, and sees the aptitude he possesses.
"Kyle not only beat him (Joe Yager), but beat him handily, and I am not shocked," said Beichner. "He (Cerminara) belongs in the top four or five nationally. The More Kyle wins these matches the more he begins to see what he is capable of."
In the final match, 16th ranked Bill Stouffer transformed Buffalo Junior Greg Thomas into a human pretzel in winning 7-1 and ending the Bulls' misery at a final score of 32-6.
Overall, Beichner was not pleased with his squad's effort, but understands there is a lot of unfinished business before the MAC championships in March.
"(Central Michigan) is a very good team, one of the best we've faced so far, and it showed. They out gunned us tonight," said Beichner. "Still, I don't like losing. If I accept losing, we will all get used to it, and when you get used to losing you become a loser. This team is not a loser."
Buffalo's next venture is at 7 p.m. Tuesday night in Slippery Rock, Pa.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
