For the second consecutive home dual meet, the Binghamton wrestling team failed to post a win over its opponent. Unlike last Sunday’s match against Stanford, however, this weekend’s meet against Buffalo was a much tighter competition, with the Bulls walking away with a 17-16 victory over BU.

“[Buffalo] did not do anything remarkable,” said Binghamton head coach Kyle Borshoff. “They did not execute any wrestling moves that we’ve not seen or known or can do ourselves. They just wrestled harder than we did. At the end of the day, and in that match especially, a lot of it comes down to our effort.”

Binghamton (1-4) quickly went down 8-0 in the opening two bouts. Sophomore Micah Roes lost in a 9-5 decision at 125 pounds, and 133-pound junior Christian Gannone was bested by his opponent in a 19-1 technical fall that handed five points to Buffalo (1-3).

“[Buffalo] is not an exceptional team,” Borshoff said. “We need to go out and we need to perform better against a team like that … We’re going to wrestle a number of teams this season that are similar to Buffalo. If we get a similar effort, we’re going to lose those matches. If we can get a better effort, we’ll win those matches.”

BU grabbed its first points in the 141-pound matchup after redshirt junior Michael Zarif downed Buffalo redshirt senior Ben Freeman in a 5-3 decision to earn three points for his side. However, Binghamton drew no momentum from the win and lost the following two matchups. After the Bulls’ victory in the 157-pound event, they stretched their lead out to 14-3.

In the sixth bout, 165-pound sophomore Brevin Cassella brought Binghamton back to life. Posting a 9-1 major decision over his opponent, Cassella garnered four more points to the Bearcats, cutting the deficit down to seven points between the teams.

“[Cassella] did a great job, he went out and dominated his match, he got a major decision,” Borshoff said. “In dual meets, bonus points are huge, and we need our guys who are clearly better than our opponents to be winning by bonus point margins … Moving forward, we need our best guys to win matches by bigger margins, and to me, it’s just a lack of effort.”

Both junior Jacob Nolan and redshirt senior Lou DePrez missed out on earning bonus points for the Bearcats. Nolan earned a 9-4 decision at 174 pounds and L. DePrez posted a 5-3 victory at 197 pounds. They only earned three points apiece as Binghamton continued to trail. Junior Sam DePrez competed at 184 pounds and lost his bout 3-1. Binghamton matched Buffalo in bout wins but was outmatched in bonus points.

With the score at 17-13 in favor of the Bulls, 285-pound redshirt senior Joe Doyle needed a major decision to draw the match. Doyle stepped onto the mat for the first time since getting injured against Rutgers earlier in the season. Although the Bearcat posted a decisive victory in the heavyweight competition, the 7-3 decision wasn’t enough to shift the score back in BU’s favor.

“[Doyle] hasn’t wrestled a live situation since he got hurt against the Rutgers opponent,” Borshoff said. “Going out, he knew that if he got a major decision in that match, our team wins the dual. [Doyle] put the team on his shoulders and tried to do everything he could to win the match for us, and he shouldn’t have had to do it. In my opinion, his teammates let him down.”

Binghamton’s next competition is slated to take place at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational on Friday, Dec. 3 and Saturday, Dec. 4. The tournament is set to be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.