The Area Scene

Obviously, the big score from last week was Hunterdon Central’s impressive 38-21 victory over Phillipsburg.

While it’s true this is far from one of Pburg’s best teams, it was still a huge step forward for a Central squad that so often in the past came up short against the Liners. (Pburg owns a 39-8-1 lead in the series).

With a victory over No. 2 North Hunterdon already in the books, for Central it’s all going to come down to how it does against Howell. One good piece of news is the Howell match will almost certainly be at Central.

In the meantime, Central will be tested again in a quad Saturday with the likes of St. Peter’s and Emerson. Next week the Red Devils will be in a quad at Kingsway that includes Rancocas Valley.

With Colonial Valley Conference wrestling somewhat up for grabs, another thing to keep an eye on is which team will gain Burlington County bragging rights.

There are a whole lost of teams in the Burlco mix. Right now Rancocas Valley is the highest ranked Burlington team in the area at No. 3, but Cherokee is right behind the Red Devils in the fourth spot. Unfortunately, those teams will not meet.

Fortunately, most of the other top teams in Burlington will collide. Cherokee, Delran and Northern Burlington are all entered in this weekend’s Jack Welch Duals at Moorestown.

A week from Wednesday it will be Northern Burlington at Rancocas Valley. NBC lost to Robbinsville over the weekend, but don’t necessarily assume its seven-year stranglehold on the Liberty Division will come to an end against arch-rival

RV. Northern Burlington was missing several key injured starters against Robbinsville and if it can get healthy it will not be an easy out.

Finally, when Jefferson travels to Delaware Valley this Friday it will mark the 25th anniversary of the infamous “Slam” in the match that was for No. 1 in the state. It will be a much different atmosphere this time around with defending state champion DelVal suffering through the kind of year that defies description.