ERIE, Pennsylvania -- The #23 Lake Erie wrestling team traveled to Erie, Pennsylvania today to take on the #8 Gannon University Golden Knights. In a lineup full of ranked opponents, the Storm gave Gannon a scare and just narrowly lost, 23-17. The dual loss gives Lake Erie a 0-1 start to the season.

The match started with a Gannon major decision victory at 125 to put them up 4-0 early. At 133, Anthony Sagaris fought his way back against #3 Jeremiah Echevarria, but fell narrowly by decision, 11-9.

At 141, Carsen Richards had arguably the most exciting match of the day. With Richards up 4-2 with 24 seconds left, Gannon's Brock Christian took him down to take a 5-3 lead. After rolling out of bounds, the two reset and Richards began at the bottom with 17 seconds remaining. He quickly escaped and swung over-top of Christian for two points and a 6-5 lead with 11 second left. With three seconds remaining, Christian slipped out from Richard's hold and tied the match at 6-6, sending the match to sudden victory. In the extra time, Richards took down Christian for a 9-6 win and put the Storm on the board, 7-3.

At 149, #1 Christian Small made easy work of his opponent and won by technical fall 17-1, giving the Storm an 8-7 lead. At 157, Matthew Kaufmann faced #9 Ethan Richner and fell by decision 10-3.

165 saw two ranked opponents faceoff in #6 Jack Haskin and #7 Nicholas Coreno. By watching Haskin though, you wouldn't be able to tell that Coreno was ranked. He made easy work of him and won 11-2 by major decision. 

With a 12-10 lead, the Storm forfeited their 174 matchup which gave Gannon a 16-12 advantage. At 184, Vincent Scaramuzzino faced off against Gaetano Savelli. In the third period, he took a 6-5 lead but Savelli tied it up with a release. After escaping, Savelli quickly lunged forward but Scaramuzzino trapped him and took him down by fall, bringing the Storm back into the lead at 18-16.

With just two matched remaining, redshirt freshman Quinn Gorman took on Eli Reese for the first dual match of his career. Gorman impressed and the match remained scoreless after the first. By the end of the second, Gorman went down 4-0 and by the end he would fall 11-1 by major decision, giving Gannon a 20-16 lead.

At 285, Tyler Shellenbarger, who normally wrestles at 197, stepped up big time to face #2 Dorian Crosby. He fought extremely hard but went down early. His shining moment was in the third when he went down 9-2 and earned three points to trim Crosby's lead to 9-5. In the scuffle, Shellenbarger drove Crosby out of bounds and caused him to roll into the scorer's table, giving the match an extra level of added excitement. By the end, Shellenbarger would lose by major decision 16-6, but afterwards the two exchanged some words and a unsportsmanlike point was deducted from both teams, bringing the final score to 23-17.

The Storm will be back in action on Saturday, December 1st for two conference dual matches. They will face Davenport University at 10 a.m. and follow-up against #21 Tiffin University.