Jonathan Fox's win at 145 pounds leads MacArthur wrestling past Plainedge

Jonathan Fox had a chance to make a statement and he took it.

The MacArthur senior is a three-time Nassau Division I wrestling place winner, but he has yet to reach the county finals. During MacArthur’s 37-26 home win over Plainedge on Thursday, Fox showed he’s among the county’s elite wrestlers with a 4-2 decision over reigning 145-pound county champion Kyle Carter.

“Last year, I had a lot of back problems and I didn’t have a ton of tough matches like this, but when I got to those tough matches, I got gassed and didn’t believe in myself,” Fox said. “I just have more confidence in myself. [Carter] is really good and a county champ, but I just believed I was better.”

After a scoreless first period, Fox opened the second period on bottom and earned an escape with 30 seconds left in the frame. With 25 seconds left in the third period, Carter had Fox in a headlock and looked like he was about to score a takedown, but Fox pulled a nifty move to take Carter down for a 4-0 lead.

“He had me in a front headlock and I’m in that position a lot with Matt [Lichter] because we train together every day and Matt’s also a really good wrestler,” Fox said. “I don’t let Matt finish that move, so I was in that position and I knew what I had to do. He opened his leg up, he got up and wanted to bounce me down. I shot in and I sensed that he was running, so I tried to keep my foot in. I grabbed the other leg and I got the takedown.”

Right before Fox’s match, Lichter pinned John Cynar in 1:21 at 138 pounds to give MacArthur an 18-11 lead. Lichter’s brother, Andrew, fell behind 7-0 to Joe Manfre at 108 pounds. But the Generals’ bench did their best to will Andrew back into the match, repeatedly chanting his name. After scoring a reversal to end the first period, Andrew took control of the match. He took an 8-7 lead into the third period before finishing with a 19-7 major decision.

“This is a great win,” Matt Lichter said. “Plainedge has a lot of good guys and we’re looking to win it all this year. So, we really showed that we’re up there.”

MacArthur improved to 11-0 under first-year coach Mike Marrero, who graduated from MacArthur in 2013. Plainedge, which won the Division I state dual meet championship last year, falls to 12-4.

“We love winning, but our emphasis is on competing and performing,” Marrero said. “A lot of times, kids wrestle to not lose and you don’t get their full potential out of them. It really just matters where you are at the end of the season. This is a great win, but we don’t want this to be the highlight of our season by any means.”