Cover photo courtesy of Jeff Pataky
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The Red Hawks followed up their 2023-2024 ECIC III co-championship with winning ECIC II outright on Wednesday with a 45-21 victory over Williamsville South in Elma. The WNY #8 ranked small school team finishes the 2024-2025 season with a perfect 7-0 record in division duals in the expanded and reshuffled league slate.
Iroquois has participated in either ECIC II or III off and on in each of the last six seasons (not including spring 2021) and last captured an outright division title in the 2019-2020 season going 6-0 in ECIC III and 27-4 overall. Last season, the Red Hawks shared the league dual meet championship with Springville as both teams ended with 5-1 records in the division.
Head coach Jim Kloc and team faced three league opponents just in the last four weekdays to complete the season sweep over conference foes.
On Friday, Jan. 31, Iroquois traveled to defending ECIC II champion and then #8 ranked large school Amherst for a showdown of league unbeatens, escaping the ‘Jungle’ with a 34-28 win over the Tigers. The Red Hawks won seven weights to Amherst’s’ six in that dual with five crucial bonus point wins and four pins including three pins to start the match by Brady Wilkinson (152), Sam Donovan (160), and Alex Schiffhauer (170).
Then on Monday, Iroquois hosted the #5 large school Hamburg Bulldogs coming off a big rivalry win from Friday night for another matchup of undefeated ECIC II teams. After falling behind 9-0 to start the dual, Iroquois picked up all seven of their wins on the night in a row from 116 to 160-pounds to include five pins, a forfeit, and a technical fall to take a 41-9 lead with only four weights left.
Going 7-0 for Iroquois in league duals this season were Trey Pfeiffer (fr), Stefano Passucci (so), Josh Pfeiffer (jr), and Brady Wilkinson (sr).
2024-2025 Iroquois scores vs. league opponents:
Dec. 11: Iroquois 54 – Cheektowaga 12
Dec. 19: Iroquois 46 – Starpoint 24
Jan. 8: Iroquois 39 – Williamsville East 30
Jan. 15: Iroquois 43 – Lake Shore 32
Jan. 31: Iroquois 34 – Amherst 28
Feb. 3: Iroquois 41 – Hamburg 31
Feb. 5: Iroquois 45 – Williamsville South 21
Iroquois head coach Jim Kloc // Pataky
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