1982, one of his big strengths as a coach was in conditioning. Over 20 years and 300 wins later, conditioning is continuing to pay off for the Blue Knights.

A pair of third-period pins and several strong efforts in the later stages of matches helped lift No. 5 Southington to a 48-20 CCC South victory over Bristol Eastern Wednesday night.

The Knights (13-2, 3-0 CCC South) won their 28th straight league contest over a tired Easternsquad that wrestled twice last Saturday and again on Monday in the rescheduled Bristol Central Invitational.

"Southington is a great team," Eastern coach Jason Krueger said. "I thought we wrestled tough for the most part for five minutes. Unfortunately, you have to wrestle tough for six minutes. We have a team of

primarily sophomores and juniors. I guess we have to learn our lessons the hard way."

Sepko was honored with a plaque for earning his 300th career coaching victory earlier this month against Platt. But he was more excited about the performance of his wrestlers.

"Our guys came to wrestle for six minutes," he said proudly. "We wore them out and broke their will after a while. We did it by staying off our back, wrestling for six minutes and taking advantage of opportunities."

Eastern (12-3, 2-1 CCC South) cut the Southington lead to eight points, 19-11, after Ryan Lavoie (125) won by tech fall over Eric Sendowski. But at 130, senior Bill St. Pierre broke open tight duel with a sharp looking single leg takedown and wrapped up Eastern’s Dustin Deschaine into a cradle, pinning him in 5:08 for a 25-11 Blue Knight lead.

Southington extended its lead to 31-11 when Chris Lee (135) pinned in 35 seconds. At 140 pounds, freshman Brenden Blaschke led by four points after two periods but caught Eastern’s Nate Ledger in a headlock to seize control of their match and prevail, 11-4.

Southington clinched the bout at 145 pounds. Eastern’s Adam Dekow led 7-3 in the third period over Jeremy Seeger. But in a flash, Dekow relaxed for a second and Seeger reversed him, wrapped him up in a cradle and pinned Dekow in 5:40.

The Knights also got wins from Andy Liseo (160) with a technical fall and Chris D’Angelo (189), who earned a 5-2 win over Josh Schumacher. Jon Vose (189) outlasted Al Blumenthal, 3-0 while Greg Fontaine (103) and Brandon Taricani (112) won with pins. Paul Sasso (119) earned a 9-1 decision.

Eastern’s Matt Chapulis (171) grabbed an early 5-0 lead in the first period and topped Brandon Campbell, 5-0. Wes Becker (275) won with a 34 second pin and Dan Strong (152) prevailed with a 3:13 pin.

"We all train real hard in the team room," Sepko said. "We start with conditioning, technique work and then light wrestling. Then we push them at the end. They get used to wrestling hard for eight minutes."

Southington beat Eastern for the fifth straight time -- its longest winning streak ever against the Lancers.