North Hunterdon Wrestling Club

Published in the Home News Tribune 02/22/98

BRICK -- South Plainfield's perfect season finally came to an end.

The Tigers suffered their first and only loss this season, falling to Lenape Valley 32-27 in the NJSIAA Group III semifinals yesterday at Brick Memorial High School. Lenape Valley then fell to the host team, 35-28 in the championship match.

In the consolation match, South Plainfield finished in a 30-30 tie with Warren Hills, last year's Group III champion.

It was the second straight year South Plainfield lost in the Group semifinals. Last season, the Tigers lost to Kingsway 34-25 in the Group II semis before winning the consolation match over Hanover Park.

But last year's Tigers featured nine seniors in the lineup. This year's squad reached the Group III semis with just a handful of seniors, compiling a 14-0 record and winning the GMC Tournament championship and the Central Jersey Group III title along the way.

"We've won 14 matches and we've squeaked a lot out," South Plainfield coach Bill Pavlak said. "This time it just turned the other way."

"At the beginning of the season I knew we had some potential," said Tigers' senior Chris Johnston, "but to get this far with this crew of kids is unbelievable. This was a really big step. This team proved that it's not a fluke from last year."

South Plainfield certainly made an impression early on against Lenape Valley, the North Jersey, Section 1, Group III champion. The Tigers rolled to a 12-3 lead by winning three of the first four bouts, as freshman Roberto Ramos began with a 4-0 decision at 103 and senior Tommy Doerr followed with a 53-second pin at 112.

The Tigers then received a huge win at 125 when senior Joe Celentano scored a 12-10 win over Gary Mikolay, a Region 1 champion last year. When Celentano, who trailed 6-2 in the first period, rallied from a 10-7 deficit in the third period to pull out the win, South Plainfield appeared to have control of the match.

Instead, Lenape Valley followed the setback by winning the next seven bouts. Among the wins was a 43-second pin by Derek Nagy, who moved up from 152 to 160 and improved to his record 23-0, and technical falls from Doug Graziano (130) and Chris Ressa (135). By the time Brendan Trezza made it seven in a row for the Patriots with a 9-4 win at 171, Lenape Valley had taken a 32-12 lead to clinch the match.

"We had our chances, and we let a couple matches slip away," Pavlak said. "We thought we were in good shape."

"They kind of took our momentum away," Johnston said. "It was like a snowball; it just kept building."

The Patriots also won a pair of crucial one-point bouts in their seven-bout streak. At 152, Steve Ryan edged the Tigers' Frank Crincoli with a 6-5 win, while Pete Deignan pulled out a 4-3 victory over Johnston at 145. Deignan took the bout after getting a reversal with just 12 seconds left in the third period, raising his record to 20-2.

"I just couldn't fend him off anymore," said Johnston, now 23-3. "He wrestled a really good match, and he got me today."

"Pete's been doing that all year," Lenape Valley coach Bob Poggi said. "He's usually our 135-pounder. I've been moving him around all over the place, but he's aggressive and he's going to hang in there with anybody."

In the consolation match, South Plainfield won the last three bouts to finish in a tie with Warren Hills, the North Jersey, Section 2, Group III champion. Warren Hills, which lost 36-30 to Brick Memorial in the other semifinal, built a 30-18 lead before the Tigers began their comeback.

After sophomore Dan Kunst won a 7-3 decision at 189 and junior Chris Cioffi won 11-5 at 215 to pull the Tigers to within 30-24, sophomore heavyweight Colin Hunter needed just 52 seconds to get a pin and make it 30-all. Since it was a consolation match, no criteria was used to declare a winner and the match ended in a tie.

Doerr recorded another 53-second pin in the consolation match to raise his record to 24-1. Celentano dropped to 23-3 after losing to Warren Hills' Jason White, 3-1.

Source: Home News Tribune

Published: February 22, 1998

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