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“I let the loss go and said to myself that I was not going to lose again and I was going to finish third,” said Cohen, a junior at Walter Panas High School. “I was not going to spend the whole day here and not place.”
The Lakeland/Panas wrestler rebounded to win his next two matches and finished third in the 138-pound weight class. Cohen secured a takedown of Tappan Zee’s Noah Hovde in the final seconds to earn a 5-4 win in the third-place match.
In order to wrestle for third place, Cohen had to beat teammate James Carlucci in a consolation semifinal.
Teammate Brendan Woods finished fourth at 182 pounds.
Even though Cohen was trailing, 4-2, going into the third period, he was confident. He opened the third period on bottom and escaped immediately for one point. From then on, Cohen was the aggressor, setting up and carrying through with his shot, looking for the takedown. However, Hovde’s defense was excellent.
“I knew he was getting tired so I wanted to keep pushing the pace,” Cohen said. “I was able to get in on his leg, but he was doing a good job defending it. On each shot, I was getting in deeper and deeper.”
Cohen’s determination and persistence came to fruition in the final 12 seconds. Cohen took a shot and was in on Hovde’s leg at the edge of the mat. Hovde was trying to get out of bounds, but Cohen secured control and was awarded two points with one second remaining.
“I didn’t know if I had it right there, but when I heard the official say ‘Two takedown,’ and saw there were zero seconds on the clock, it was a good feeling,” Cohen said.
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