By TERRY NAU

Sports editor

CUMBERLAND – Billy Lomax and Derek Paul helped top-ranked Cumberland avoid a major upset on Thursday night in the second round of the state dual-meet championship tournament.

Westerly, a dangerous Division II school, came out hitting on all cylinders while racing out to an 18-3 lead that soon stretched to 27-9 before two forfeits by the Bulldogs and wins from Lomax and Paul at 189 and 215 turned a possible demoralizing loss into a 30-27 victory.
Westerly, it turns out, wrestles short at two or three positions in every meet.
The Bulldogs boasted an 11-2 record coming into the first round and managed to outscore D-II colleague Narragansett 41-35 in Thursday night’s opener, setting the stage for its challenge of the Clippers, who are 16-0 on the season.
Lomax scored a 5-1 victory over long-time rival Jeff Hebert to bring the Clippers within three points at 27-24.
“Those two have been wrestling since middle school,” Westerly coach Albert Gaccione said later, “and I think that’s the first time Billy has defeated Jeff.”

Lomax, wrestling up from natural weight of 171 pounds, took a 3-0 lead in the second period with an escape and takedown of his stockier opponent. Hebert spent most of his time looking to hit a headlock. He stumbled after missing his favorite move late in the third period and Lomax fell on top of him for the clinching two-pointer.
Paul, moving up from 189 to 215, then pinned first-year wrestler David Harris when he reversed from the bottom position early in the second period and hit a headlock in the process, taking Harris right to the mat for the clinching pin.
Heavyweight was declared no match, although if the Clippers had needed the points, they would have taken a forfeit as Westerly’s wrestler failed to make weight.
Gaccione, though disappointed that the gallant upset bid by his team fell short, was in a better mood than his counterpart, Cumberland coach Steve Gordon.
“I thought we could give them a good match,” Gaccione admitted. “We have four state placewinners in our lineup (103, 125, 152 and 189). We’re very solid from 103 through 130. When we won the first two matches with pins, I knew we had a chance.”
Gordon wore a bemused look, knowing this victory, in some respects, felt like a defeat.
“We have no excuses,” Gordon said. “They just tore through our lightweights. We seemed to be very flat. Maybe the kids are tired. I’m going to give the varsity the weekend off. But we have no excuses tonight. Westerly wrestled very well.”
The Bulldogs got off fast when junior Patrick Malaghan, a placewinner at last year’s state tournament, pinned Cumberland freshman Shail Lariviere in 3:56. Malaghan showed great discipline and had a strength advantage over the young Clipper, who has wrestled beyond his years for most of the season but put himself in danger on too many occasions before Malaghan took advantage.
Malaghan led 6-2 when he decked Lariviere with four seconds left in the middle stanza.
In the next match, Shai’s brother Shoneil got taken down twice in the first period and then got pinned midway through the second stanza. The Clippers were down 12-0 and needed something good to happen and Jaron Parent responded with an 8-4 win at 119.
Westerly won the next two matches for an 18-3 lead before Cumberland’s Keith Hebert notched a 9-5 win at 135. Even this win wasn’t without peril as Hebert got reversed and had to fight to stay off his back in the closing seconds.
The Clippers’ Rick McCoy fell behind 9-6 late in the third period before hitting a five-point move in the closing seconds for an 11-9 victory that slowed the Bulldogs down.
“That was the referee’s call,” Gaccione said. “Perhaps he called it too soon. But I always tell my kids never to put the match in the referee’s hands. It’s their match to win or lose.”
Westerly bounced back with a pin at 145 and a win at 152 to take an almost unthinkable 27-9 lead over a Cumberland team that only two weeks ago beat the No. 1 and 2 teams in the state on consecutive nights.
The forfeits at 160 and 171 brought Cumberland to 27-21 and put the meet in the hands of two veterans, Lomax and Paul.
“This (comeback) shows we have a lot of fight in us,” Paul said. “I knew I needed to stick my opponent. We didn’t wrestle our best tonight. We weren’t very good on our feet.”
The Clippers advanced to the Dual-Meet Final Four on Feb. 19. Before that event, they conclude the dual-meet season next Wednesday night by hosting fifth-ranked Bishop Hendricken, which dropped a 41-30 decision to LaSalle in the second round of the dual-meet tourney on Thursday night.

Cumberland 30, Westerly 27
103 – Pat Malaghan (W) pinned Shai Lariviere 3:56
112 – Sean Conroy (W) pinned Shoneil Lariviere 3:04
119 – Jaron Parent © def. Dan Metcalf 8-4
125 – Pat Moran (W) def. Jake Cardoza 4-2
130 – Kevin Conroy (W) def. Chris Smith 6-2
135 – Keith Hebert © def. Tim Terranova 9-5
140 – Rick McCoy © def. Taylor Caputo 11-9
145 – T.J. Capaldi (W) pinned George Beaulieu 2:52
152 – Cort Short (W) def. Taylor Dougan 4-2
160 – Cumberland won by forfeit
171 – Cumberland won by forfeit
189 – Billy Lomax © def. Jeff Hebert 5-1
215 – Derek Paul © pinned David Harris 2:45
285 – No match