The East Providence High School wrestling team suffered a Division I dual meet loss after the Townies were edged by visiting North Providence, 36-34, Thursday night, Jan. 25, at Ramos Gym.

A win in the penultimate match of the evening by the guests at 215 pounds proved the decisive bout of the night.

The Cougars broke out to an early 9-0 lead over their hosts, winning at 106 on points (three points toward team total) and at 113 via pin (six points).

The Townies answered with consecutive pins to take a 12-9 edge as Aydin Schifino won 1 minute, 23 seconds into his contest at 120 and Jon Raposo won 50 seconds into his bout at 126.

North Providence leveled with a decision at 132 before EP's Charles Phillips won by major decision at 138 (four points).

The Cougars continued the back-and-forth nature of the night with pins at 144 and 150 to go back on top 24-16.

The Townies answered to go back in front 25-24 with a win by decision at 157 by Simon Palumbo and Ferhat Akdemir's pin at 1:12 of the third period at 165.

The teams then traded pinfall wins at 175 for the Cougars and Jordan Carl for the Townies (58 seconds into the second period) at 195.

The deciding contest was one of, if not the most competitive of the entire evening and was evident of how close the two sides were.

North's Eddie Vasquez, up 9-8 at the time, registered a pin over EP's Joe Vito mid-way through the second period of their match at 215 pounds to put the Cougars back in front 36-31.

The Townies' Machar Francis knew he needed to pin his Cougar counterpart Will Francis at heavyweight to give EP the overall victory.

There was little action for most of the match. Francis led 2-0 through two periods before attempting to score the pinfall win, but he couldn't hold Francis' shoulders to the mat long enough, settling for a 9-3 decision and just three points.

Over the weekend, the EPHS wrestlers vied in the annual Connecticut Challenge at Southington High School where the Townies shared fifth place in the team ranks with their hosts while the aforementioned North Providence won the tournament.

The Cougars scored 136 points to edge two other Connecticut schools, Enfield and Turnbull, which finished in a share of second with 132. West Springfield, Mass. was fourth alone with 125. EP and Southington shared fifth with 116 ahead of rival LaSalle, which finished seventh with 94 points.

Akdemir continued his string of fine finishes, winning the 165-pound class with a pin of Alec Mertz, of Fairfield/ Ludlowe (Conn.) late in the third period at 5:31.

All three of Akdemir's wins were via pin. He began with a quick stoppage at 54 seconds of the first period then took care of LaSalle's Adryan Urena in the semis 1:20 into the match.

Three other Townies fell in their respective finals. Brendan Bernard was pinned at 1:16 of the first period at 132 by Ethan Buonanducci of Enfield. At 157 Tyler Neiva of Trumbull (Conn.) scored a tech fall win over Palumbo up 16-0 early in the third. And Francis was pinned mid-way through the third period (5:16) by Enfield's Keonta Crawford.

All of Bernard's results, good and bad, were via pins. He trailed his opening round match 4-0 before recording a pin 41 seconds into the second period. He won his quarter by pin also in the third at 4:54. He then took his semi again by pin and once more from a losing position, down 8-4 before winning 20 seconds left in the second.

Palumbo opened his tournament with a pinfall win at 1:20 of the first then was a victor by decision 5-0 before recording another win by pin in the semis just nine seconds into the third period.

Francis won a pair of matches en route to the final after receiving an opening round bye. In the quarters, he earned a 3-2 decision then took care of semifinal by pin at with just three seconds left in the first period.

Phillips added the lone third-place result for the locals, defeating Hood Mohsin of West Springfield by a 12-7 score at 138 pounds. Phillips won twice to open the tournament by pin, 1:49 and 4:09, before falling to eventual tourney champ Jay Chase of Sheehan (Wallingford, Conn.), 5-4. He wrestled back to win his consolation semi by pin at 4:43. Chase took the title with a tech fall win over Noah Riley of North Providence, 16-0, at 2:26 of the second period.

— East Providence Post and eastbayri.com contributing photographer Julie Furtado shot the accompanying gallery of photos.