Howell beats Hunterdon Central to win Central Jersey Group V
FLEIMINGTON » There was some conjecture as to how the top-ranked Howell wrestling team (300) would handle things if for the first time all year it suddenly found itself in a real dogfight.
As Hunterdon Central (22-2) unfortunately found out the hard way Friday night, the answer was just fine.
Wrestling in front of a packed gym in the Hunterdon Central Fieldhouse, Howell recovered from a couple of early setbacks and pulled away at the end to beat the Red Devils, 29-20, in the Central Jersey Group V championship.
Howell will now attempt to win its second straight group title in Toms River on Sunday after ending Hunterdon Central’s dual match season with a loss for the second time in a row. Last year Howell beat Central, 28-27, in the group final.
It was no secret Hunterdon Central would need to wrestle virtually a perfect match to pull off the upset. And for a while there it looked like it might just happen as Central opened the match with a huge 10-7 win by Vince Romaniello at 145 pounds over Paul Jakub (26-3) and then was able to sweep 195 through heavyweight.
The key upperweight win was turned in by heavyweight Ryan Joyce used a late takedown to nip Scott Prendergast, 3-2, and put Central ahead by the score of 16-13.
As expected, Central’s outstanding freshman Brett Ungar then won at 106 pounds and Howell was now in a seven-point hole with five bouts to go.
But although the match had not exactly gone the way it planned, Howell’s outstanding balance was able to carry the day as it responded by ripping off five decisions in a row.
“It was a great team effort,’’ said a somewhat relieved Howell coach John Gagliano. “Hunterdon Central is well coached; they are a great team. We knew this would not be easy. We had to do this as a team and keep the bonus down.’’
The Howell comeback was launched by Jerry Lleshi’s major decision at 113. Darby Diedrich, who is ranked fourth in the state, then delivered by dropping down to at 120 and beating Jack Bauer, 3-1.
The reason Howell could bring Diedrich (320) down was because it has Luke Rada at 126. Sure enough Rada (25-4) delivered with a 9-2 vic- tory, giving Howell a 2320 lead with two bouts to go.
Hunterdon Central had no choice at this point but to send out Hunter Graf (30-3) against Howell hammer Kyle Slendorn (31-0) at 132 pounds.
Graf wrestled a great match and took Slendorn down twice in the first period, but Slendorn came on strong for a 10-6 win that sealed the deal. It sealed it because Howell now had a 26-20 lead and would have won by criteria even if Central had pinned in the last bout.
That didn’t come even close to happening with Howell’s Dan Esposito posting a 2-1 overtime win over Pasquale Vizzoni with a fifth-period rideout to leave the final margin at nine points.
It was a tough way to go for Central, which had another monster season come up short and leave the program still with only one group title despite all its accomplishments and victories over the years.
Howell 29, Hunterdon Central 20
145: Vince Romaniello (HC) d. Paul Jakub 10-7; 152: Xavier Kelly (H) d. Norman Cella 10-5; 160: Kevin Ciresa (HC) d. Evan Richard 9-0; 170: Shane Reitsma (H) md. Dan Furmato 18-4; 182: Christian Murphy (H) p. Kyle Barrett 1:25; 195: Lukas Bakerian (HC) d. Rashaun Hansford 8-1; 220: Angelo Crespo (HC) d. Joe Sardina 7-5 Hwt: Ryan Joyce (HC) d. Scott Prendergast 3-2; 106: Brett Ungar (HC) md. Jesse Liptzin 8-0; 113: Jerry Lleshi (H) md. Colton Washleski 16-8; 120: Darby Diedrich (H) d. Jack Bauer 3-1; 126: Luke Rada (H) d. Anthony Romaniello 9-2; 132: Kyle Slendorn (H) d. Hunter Graf 10-6; 138: Dan Esposito (H) d. Pasquale Vizzoni 2-1 TB
team to make it to Sunday’s groups. 106: Jimmy Gluck (CRAN) over Josh Rich (VGG) (MD 15-1) 113: Colby Koshinski (VGG) over Will Fernandez (CRAN) (Fall 1:28) 120: Aidan Taylor (VGG) over Patrick Kalnins (CRAN) (Dec 9-6) 126: Hunter Rinehart (VGG) over Christian Esposito (CRAN) (Dec 4-0) 132: Joe Swiston (VGG) over Jacob Snover (CRAN) (Fall 2:58) 138: Jack Korzeneski (CRAN) over Will Peterson (VGG) (Fall 0:41) 145: Max Nock (CRAN) over Garrett Loescher (VGG) (Dec 2-1) 152: AJ Bencivenga (CRAN) over Jacob Baytoff (VGG) (Fall 2:48) 160: Kyell Roper (CRAN) over Brad Kalinchak (VGG) (MD 13-4) 170: Matt Brandner (VGG) over Justin AlpaughMclean (CRAN) (Dec 11-4) 182: Zach Blevins (CRAN) over Charlie Eberle (VGG) (MD 16-6) 195: Scott Fernandes (VGG) over Dylan Budnik (CRAN) (Dec 4-0) 220: Lewis Fernandes (VGG) over Rob Schork (CRAN) (Fall 0:48) 285: Sam Huff (VGG) over Mathew Savino (CRAN) (Dec 3-1)