South Plainfield wrestling team loses for first time on New Jersey soil since 2015

Following the South Plainfield High School wrestling team’s 34-24 loss to Seton Hall Prep, head coach Bill Pavlak lamented the lineup moves his staff made, wondering if an alternate game plan might have impacted the outcome.

In reality, the Pirates (5-0), who handed the Tigers (4-1) their first loss on New Jersey soil since February 2015, simply had too much depth and balance  Wednesday afternoon.

The victory was the first over South Plainfield for veteran Seton Hall Prep head coach Jack Decker, who is in his ninth season.

“We’ve wrestled them every single year, so it’s special for me,” said Decker, whose Pirates finished 20 points ahead of the third-place Tigers to win the season-opening Morris Knolls Invitational, ending South Plainfield’s 10-year run as tournament champions. “We have definitely taken our lumps, so I think we earned this.”

Those believing that Seton Hall Prep may be a better tournament team than a dual meet team may want to rethink that position.

The Pirates returned nine starters – five who are competing at the same weight classes of a year ago – while South Plainfield graduated half its starting lineup, with those seven departed wrestlers combining  for 168 wins last season.

Wrestlers from Seton Hall Prep and South Plainfield squared off five times in the Morris Knolls Invitational, with the Tigers winning three of those bouts, including Brenden Hedden’s 6-3 decision over Zach Merlino in the 182-pound consolation finals in a battle of returning region qualifiers.

The Pirates avoided a rematch between those two and covered an otherwise vacant 195-pound weight class by inserting backup Drew Mitzak at 170 pounds, creating a domino effect of pivotal roster moves through 220 pounds that enabled Seton Hall Prep to win five of the first seven bouts while building a 19-6 lead halfway through a dual meet that commenced at 145 pounds.

After Mitzak decisioned Joe Nardacci, returning region qualifier Alex Garcia bumped up to 182 pounds, where he majored Hedden 13-4, and Merlino bumped up to 195 pounds, where he lost small, dropping a 6-0 decision to incumbent state qualifier Luke Niemeyer. Seton Hall Prep’s Ben Halligan, who entered the dual with a 0-4 record at 195, followed with an 8-3 decision at 220 over freshman Julian Medina, who has spent just a week in the room after recovering from a knee injury. Halligan was able to avert the big throw of Medina, who took his opponent to his back.

“It was huge, especially when you pick up a win you’re not necessarily supposed to get,” Decker said of the moves Seton Hall Prep made. “For just the team morale, and when the momentum gets going, it’s hard to stop something like that.”

Zach DelVecchio, who placed fourth in the state at 220 pounds last season, bumped up to heavyweight, where he pinned reigning Morris Knolls Invitational finalist and returning region qualifier Niko Diakides in the first period. Freshman Anthony White (8-0) followed with his second consecutive decision over incumbent region runner-up Larry Melchionda, who he also defeated at the Morris Knolls Invitational, enabling the Tigers to close the deficit to 19-15 with five bouts remaining.

“They made moves and everything they did worked,” said Pavlak, whose team’s last loss in the Garden State came to Delsea in the 2015 NJSIAA Group III semifinals. “Once we lost at 170, we kind of had two different lineups and we went with the lineup that we thought was the best to try to get some points up top with Zach, Luke and Medina – possibly to get 18 there. It just didn’t work out that way.”

The South Plainfield coaching staff opted to forfeit at 113 pounds to talented freshman Connor Decker, a Morris Knolls Invitational champion with a 6-1 record, and bumped Frank Mannino up to 120 pounds, where Dean Musialowicz registered a pin to improve his personal mark to 3-4.

Mannino was covering a hole at 120 pounds, which the Tigers will fill once Bishop Ahr transfer Dave Loniewski, a returning state qualifier, becomes eligible early next month under NJSIAA transfer guidelines. Pavlak said Loniewski’s younger brother, Nick, a promising freshman who was expected to start at 113 pounds for the Tigers, will miss the entire season because of health issues.

South Plainfield’s Joe Heilmann (pin at 126) and incumbent state qualifier Alex Amato (1-0 decision at 138 pounds over backup Aidan Cunningham, who was filling in for incumbent state qualifier Maguire Pecci) sandwiched victories around teammate Tommy Fiero’s loss to produce the final margin. A University of North Carolina commit, Heilmann placed third in the state last season. A defending conference tournament champion and district runner-up, Fiero lost to Charlie Cunningham, who won two bouts in Atlantic City last season.

Defending conference tournament champion and returning state qualifier Joe Sacco pushed the pace and looked impressive in a 7-2 dual meet-opening decision at 145 pounds over Jack Wilt, who he decisioned 4-3 in the Morris Knolls Invitational semifinals. The Pirates answered with four consecutive wins.

Key among them was returning region qualifier Danny Young’s early third-period pin of Marc Giordano, who was leading 2-1 at the time. Young also pinned Giordano in the quarterfinals of the Morris Knolls Invitational, where the Pirates crowned three champions and the Tigers won four weight classes.

“Overall,” Pavlak said, “our goals are still the same. We’re looking at (winning) counties, districts, the section and groups. This team is good enough, if we can get everyone healthy and in shape.”