Saturday, February 14, 2009
SECTIONAL WRESTLING
Three straight decisions by its lightweights set up a closing crescendo among its middleweights as Phillipsburg defeated South Plainfield, 34-21, in the NJSIAA/Star-Ledger North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 final last night in Phillipsburg.
The victory sends Phillipsburg, No. 6 in The Star-Ledger Top 20, to the Group 3 semifinals, where it will oppose unranked Hammonton at 10 a.m. tomorrow at the Ritacco Center on the campus of Toms River North.
The other Group 3 semifinal will pit unranked Brick and No. 14 Montville.
Phillipsburg will wrestle for a 16th group championship. South Plainfield, ranked No. 5, was bidding for its eighth sectional title and its sixth group championship.
The four public group semifinals and finals and two non-public finals will be contested tomorrow at the Ritacco Center.
Missing from the Group 3 party, of course, will be No. 1 High Point, which was disqualified from the tournament on Monday for violating the 70 percent rule, which requires a team to wrestle at least 70 percent of its schedule against New Jersey schools.
Phillipsburg, which fell to High Point, 30-22 on Jan. 31, received critical victories at 112, 119 and 125 pounds against South Plainfield, which fell to Brearley in the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 2 final last season.
Rylan Watson hit a reversal with :16 remaining to edge Rich Szeliga, 4-2, at 112 pounds. That's was important enough, since Tyler Hunt had just decked Casey Duckworth at 103 to put South Plainfield (18-2) in front, 14-10.
Dan Brockerhoff then followed at 119 by edging Jeff Conroy, 5-2. Brockerhoff was trailing, 1-0, entering the third period when he escaped and scored a pair of takedowns for the decision and a 16-14 lead for Phillipsburg (19-2).
Next up was what appeared to be a toss-up bout at 125 and Phillipsburg's Matt Lane struck first, scoring a four-point move to beat the buzzer and take a 4-0 lead at the end of the first period. Lane coasted from there to an 8-2 decision and a 19-14 lead for Phillipsburg.
South Plainfield's Nick Heilmann, the 2008 Region 3 runner-up at 119 pounds, temporarily righted the ship, scoring a 10-0 major decision over John Horak at 130 to draw the Middlesex County school to within a point, 19-18.
That's where Phillipsburg put the match away.
Phillipsburg's Adam Simon (135) defeated Randy Jakubik, 10-4, at 135, Bobby Moyer (140) used a first-period takedown to edge Joel Santos, 2-0, and Oliver Brukardt (145) put South Plainfield in a 28-18 hole with two bouts remaining when he edged John Wylam, 3-1.
South Plainfield needed to score 11 points in the final two bouts but that wasn't going to happen with the likes of Nick Pare (152) and Mike Simon (160) finishing up for Phillipsburg.
Pare fell just 6-3, to Nick Vallone, and though it drew South Plainfield within seven points, the match was over.
Mike Simon gave the usually raucous crowd at Phillipsburg's Pit a rousing sendoff by pinning Nicky Pauls in 1:48 to close out the 13-point victory in which the Warren County school won nine of the 14 bouts.