AUGUSTA — His Massabesic teammates kept telling Dominick Bubar that the Class A team title would end up coming down to his match in Saturday’s 165-pound final. His coaches were even adding some extra pressure, telling him he would probably need a pin.
As it turned out, all Bubar, a dynamic senior wrestler with speed, skill and superior strength, needed to do was win, thanks to fellow captain Jack Harriman grinding out a 5-4 win in the 157-pound final minutes earlier, cutting defending champion Noble’s team lead to just one point.
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Bubar got the pin anyway. After taking a 13-0 lead on Portland/South Portland’s Hussein Ali early in the second period, Bubar worked a power throw into a quick finish, setting off a jumping, shouting, bright-green clad group of wrestlers, coaches, and fans celebrating Massabesic’s first team title since 2008.
Massabesic won with 114.5 points. Noble, which entered the championship finals with a slim five point lead, was second with 109.5. Mt. Blue of Farmington finished third with 91 points.
“We were joking around about it all week how it was going to come down to my match,” Bubar said. “I was a little nervous but I finished what I needed to do to seal the deal for us. At the end of the day, I always want pins, to walk out there and get the best pins and fastest pins I can.”
Last season Massabesic felt it had the goods to win. But the team didn’t wrestle to its own expectations at either the regional meet or states and finished second, 21 points behind Noble. This year the regional meet wasn’t perfect. Massabesic would have liked to qualify more than seven wrestlers, while Noble advanced 10 (plus an 11th who wrestled as an alternate). But second-year coach Joe Eon, a state champion on the 2008 championship team, knew he had a quality seven.
Massabesic put five wrestlers into the final. Isaac Broulard (113), Evan Broulard (126), Jack Harriman (157) and Bubar won titles. Nicholas Chenard at 132 pounds lost one of the most exciting matches of the finals, 11-9, to Gardiner’s Elijah Farias.
“We brought seven and really we needed production from all seven to be a state championship team,” Eon said. “On paper, we needed five in the finals. I wanted all five to win. That didn’t happen but our two anchors at the end, Jack and Dom, they got it done and sealed it for us.”
The Broulard brothers, senior Isaac and freshman Evan, both won their weight classes with gritty, tough decisions. Evan Broulard held off Evan Madigan of Edward Little, a first-year varsity program, 4-3, repeatedly deflecting strong takedown and turn attempts by Madigan in the closing minutes.
Isaac Broulard’s 12-6 overtime win against Noble’s Owen Gray was arguably the most pivotal match. Broulard had a 5-2 lead in the third period before Gray worked two take-downs and tied the match, 6-6, to send it to overtime. Gray clearly had momentum and appeared fresher but he was unable to score a point in either the one-minute sudden death period or via an escape from bottom in the second 30-second overtime. In the third overtime, Gray let Broulard get his one-point escape to get both wrestlers to their feet but it was Broulard who got a take-down and near fall for an additional three points.
“I was dead tired. It’s definitely a moment I dreamed of but I didn’t even celebrate I was so tired,” Broulard said. “It’s all just instincts. Instincts just kick in.”
Noble had two champions, Brady Ouellette at 120 and Kaden Dustin at 138. In addition to Gray’s narrow loss, Cody Marchand suffered a 10-9 loss at 144 pounds to Mt. Blue’s Dillon Gray.
“We knew it was going to be tough with Massabesic. Those five, six guys that they had did what they were supposed to,” said Kevin Gray, Noble’s coach and Owen Gray’s father. “Owen made a great rally and got it to overtime and I’m super proud the way he wrestled both as his dad and his coach. You can’t ask for anything more. Some days it just goes that way.”
Outside of the team competition, the most highly anticipated match was the 120-pound final pitting two of the state’s premier wrestlers: two-time state champ Ayden Cofone of Windham/Gray-New Gloucester/Westbrook against Ouellette, last year’s 106-pound champion. Ouellette had won both regular-season matches by seven to nine points but he needed a late turn for two back points to win 4-2.
It is not uncommon for high school wrestlers to move up or down a weight to avoid a tough opponent. Neither Cofone nor Ouellette took that route.
“I wanted him,” Cofone said. “I’m glad that somebody’s out here giving me some trouble. I thought I could run away with it this year but he kept me motivated, kept me getting better and better.”
Ouellette agreed, “Oh, one hundred percent. It gets me better. That’s what I try to do every match, get better,” Ouellette said.
Other individual champions were Kylan Berry of Marshwod (106); Michael Rollins of Camden Hills (150); Gavin Tanner, Windham/GNG/Westbrook (175); Luke Burns, Scarborough (190); Pedro Lombi, Deering (215); and Cony senior Jonny Lettre at 285.
Lettre became Cony’s second three-time state champion, joining Bill Brochu (1992-94).
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