In an impressive performance against a nationally ranked opponent, the Binghamton wrestling team continued its strong start to the season with a 23-10 victory over Army on Saturday afternoon. The Black Knights (1-1) are ranked No. 24 by InterMat, but the Bearcats (3-0) earned wins in seven of the the 10 bouts.

“What those guys did out there, it’s hard to do,” said Binghamton head coach Kyle Borshoff. “We had to travel early this morning, bus ride here, had to cut weight, get on the scale, make weight, then wrestle a nationally ranked team. [True freshman Micah Roes] dug himself out of a hole, got a win as a true freshman. We won every toss-up match and we had an upset at heavyweight. What [freshman Brevin Cassella] and [sophomore Jacob Nolan] both did was incredible. It’s guts, gutsy gutsy wins for these guys … Across the board, all I can talk about is effort, effort, effort.”

The Bearcats had a strong start in West Point, New York, as Roes continued his breakout first season with a 10-8 victory against a senior. Roes staged a comeback and won in overtime, setting the tone for Binghamton’s match.

“[Roes] is aggressive and he attacks, that’s why he is a great wrestler,” Borshoff said. “He went out and got on his offense right away, and that kid was able to get into a nice counter position and put us on our back. [Roes] fought out of it … and as a true freshman, to come in here, go down by six and chip away and get yourself out of a hole like that, it’s incredible and so hard to do.”

Ignited by Roes, junior Anthony Sobotker — also undefeated in his first season at BU — earned a 10-5 decision over his opponent. Redshirt junior No. 18 Zack Trampe followed with a major decision, and Binghamton was out to a 10-0 lead after three bouts.

Perhaps the most impressive win of the day came at the end of the match, when redshirt freshman Cory Day scored an upset over a ranked wrestler from Army, earning a 10-2 major decision to close out Binghamton’s 23-10 win.

Cassella, Nolan and redshirt junior Lou Deprez all won their bouts as well, as Binghamton earned its second victory of the season over a ranked opponent. The key to the meet, as Borshoff referenced, was Binghamton winning closely matched bouts, as well as the upset by Day.

“We have an awesome group of guys, a lot of great positive energy,” Borshoff said. “Our goal is to win national championships, be All-Americans and make it to the NCAA tournament.”

Looking ahead, the 3-0 Bearcats have only Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) opponents remaining on their schedule, including Lehigh this week.

“Tough [matches coming up] — we have Lehigh next weekend [and] they have been one of the best teams in the country for the past 100 years,” Borshoff said. “Then we have Bucknell and Hofstra, both of those teams beat us last year so we have a tough road ahead. But I think the group that we have is prepared for it and they would be disappointed if we didn’t win the next three duals. I look around and I got a bunch of guys that believe in themselves and believe in what we’re doing and it’s showing. In every close match we win, it really just comes down to believing in yourself.”

The dual meet against Lehigh is set to start at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 30 at Leeman-Turner Arena in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.