HS WRESTLING
Hightstown-Hopewell is historically big Mercer County match
For obvious reasons it’s not often The Trentonian leads off its weekly statewide wrestling coverage with something involving Mercer County, but in this case there’s an exception.
Get ready for the biggest match Mercer County has seen in a long time with Hopewell Valley (133) headed to Hightstown (14-2) on Saturday morning. Should the Rams win, it will be their first win over Hopewell since 2007.
It’s not so much that the match carries special significance in terms of any championships as both teams are locks to capture their respective divisions in the Colonial Valley Conference. While the match will result in some valuable power points, both teams will also easily qualify for sectionals.
What makes this different is for the first time in nearly a decade, a CVC team will take to the mat knowing that on paper at least it’s on an equal footing with Hopewell Valley.
A winner of 49 straight and 103 out of its last 104 CVC matches, Hopewell Valley has lost only four league matches since 2008. Its CVC record over the last 13 years is 161-4.
Of those four losses, the first was to Lawrence in 2008 on criteria. Hopewell also lost a Murphy’s Lawtype of match to Allentown and twice to Robbinsville. Other than after the first loss to Robbinsville, the Bulldogs stormed back to win the Mercer County Tournament, which they have captured 11 times in the last 12 years.
You could go and on, but it’s doubtful any of this will mean a thing come Saturday as Hightstown will enter the match full of confidence after posting a very solid win on Saturday against formerly undefeated Pt. Pleasant Beach. This is the same Pt. Pleasant Beach team (14-1) that beat Hopewell a couple of weeks ago.
“Hightstown is for real,’’ said Hopewell Valley coach Mario Harpel after studying the HightstownPt. Pleasant Beach box.
When you break down the match by weight it becomes even more difficult to call. Without getting overly analytical, Hopewell will look to do well in the lower weights and Hightstown figures to have points coming in the middle.
Both teams are strong in the upper weights and if either team can win the majority of those bouts it should be in control. Making the match even more difficult to predict is many of those upper weights are in the toss-up category.
No matter what happens Saturday the two will battle it out again the following week in the MCT at Robbinsville. Neither team, however, is focusing on the county tournament right now.
“I think it’s going to be a great match,’’ said Hightstown coach Mike Russo, who indicated he hopes to get a big turnout from the student body to support his team. “He (Harpel) has moves; I have moves. I think if we wrestle like we did against Pt. Pleasant Beach we should be in pretty good shape. We definitely will be ready to go.’’
Since Harpel is a class act and his wrestlers have never come across as cocky or arrogant, there’s a tremendous amount of respect for Hopewell Valley around the county. But this isn’t to say the rest of the CVC wouldn’t mind to see the Bulldogs taken down a notch, and truth be told this isn’t one of their stronger teams.
“I’m sure everyone will be rooting for us to lose,’’ said Harpel with a laugh.
“I love Mario, but I’m always hoping someone in the county will be able to challenge them,’’ said Russo. “A match like this is great for Mercer County wrestling.’’ Howell doesn’t match up all that great against Southern and will be hoping it doesn’t have to see the Rams in the semifinals.
In the “old days,’’ the teams in the Shore Conference Tournament (Southern usually didn’t enter) would receive a tremendous late power point boost, but this ended when the dual-match format was scrapped.
In terms of how local teams are part of the group puzzle, four figure to be in the hunt for berths in Toms River.
One, of course, is North Hunterdon, which to run the Group IV table must repeat victories over Phillipsburg and Kingsway. The rematch with Phillipsburg should prove to be particularly interesting because a lot of stuff could have gone another way last week.
Other locals in contention are Hunterdon Central, Delaware Valley and Hopewell Valley.
A loser to Mt. Olive Saturday, Central could have its hands full in C.J. Group V against the likes of Manalapan. The Red Devils are also going to have to work ahead to reach the dual-match 1,000-win milestone after their latest loss.
Delaware Valley should have no problem advancing and could very well be headed for a match against Paulsboro in the Group I final.
Hopewell Valley is part of a C.J. Group III field that includes defending champion Ocean Township and Wall. It will be difficult for Hopewell, but not impossible.
Finally, Brick Memorial (it already beat Jackson by 26 points) is a big favorite to win the section, but it would be fun if Hightstown
and Northern Burlington were to collide in C.J. Group IV.