Monroe wrestling beats Manalapan to advance to Central Group V final
MONROE — Justin Hopman kept working the arm bar and looked at the clock.
10 seconds. Seven seconds. Five seconds.
The Monroe High School 182-pounder finally moved his Manalapan opponent to his back to take a 5-4 lead and got the pin with under a second remaining. The fall clinched a 42-15 win over No. 3 Manalapan (24-5) with two matches left in a NJSIAA Central Group V semifinal.
“People come to see that,” Monroe coach Billy Jacoutot said. “That’s like a 3-pointer at the buzzer. It’s great.”
READ: BOUND BROOK WRESTLING RETURNS TO SECTIONAL FINAL
MORE: WRESTLING ROUNDUP FOR WEDNESDAY, FEB. 8
RELATED: WATCHUNG HILLS WRESTLING RALLIES PAST WESTFIELD
Second-seeded Monroe advanced to the sectional final Friday at top-seeded Hunterdon Central, which beat No. 4 Edison 64-4 in Wednesday’s other semifinal. The sectional winners compete Sunday at the Group championships at Pine Belt Arena in Toms River.
Monroe had a 9-5 advantage in matches and pulled out tossups, got three pins with favorites and didn’t give up any bonus points. In all, an ideal formula to winning a dual meet.
“What I’m most happy about is we grinded when we had to,” Jacoutot said. “We dug deep when we had to when things were tough in the match, whether it be not giving up bonus or getting bonus, we found a way.”
Monroe got pins from Nick DePalma (113) in 31 seconds, Nick Lombard (145) in 2:40 and Kaylon Bradley (195) in 1:05. Winning decisions were 126-pounder Andy Lombard (7-3 win), 138-pounder Donny Albach (4-2), 152-pounder Ian McCabe (3-1) and heavyweight Lou Ceras won 3-2 in overtime tiebreaker. Additionally, Monroe got a forfeit win at 220.
For the Braves, Paul Santomarco (106) won 7-1, Kareem Ghiada (120) took an 8-5 decision, Alex Baran (132) won 3-0, Ronny Ghaida (160) won 7-1 and Jake Staklinski won 8-2.
Monroe led 24-9, but things got tight as Manalapan won decisions at 160 and 170 to cut the deficit to 24-15 with three bouts left. Enter the 182 match. Manalapan’s Stephen Byrne led Hopman 4-2 in the third period. The Monroe junior nearly turned Byrne to his back with a cradle early in the period. He kept working on top, and finally stuck his move to electrify the crowd.
The late pin gave Monroe a 30-15 advantage with two matches remaining. The Falcons' first-year varsity wrestler improved to 12-10 and got his moment.
“That kid was strong, but I just toughed it out like coach trained us to,” Hopman said. “The crowd was great, really helped me fuel. … I finally got the arm bar. I’m sitting there looking at the clock. Counting down. I get the five-count, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, that was just insane.’ And then with a second left, I heard him hit the pin, I was just like, ‘Oh, awesome.’”
The drama started from the beginning. At heavyweight, Manalapan almost took a match that Monroe was favored in. Braves sophomore Richie Peters (12-8) forced overtime against Lou Ceras (23-2) as each earned an escape for a 1-1 tie in regulation. In the first overtime, Peters fended off a Ceras double-leg attempt toward the end of the minute session.
Ceras was awarded a point in the second tiebreaker on a penalty point on the third caution call on Peters for a 2-1 lead. Ceras escaped with 14 seconds left and held on for the 3-2 win.
In dual meets, every point counts. Manalapan got a lift in the smallest weight classes. At 106, Manalapan’s Paul Santomarco got a 7-1 win, but the Falcons freshman Joey Fiordiliso maintained control on top in the third period and didn’t give up two more points for the major decision and an extra team point.
The Monroe coaches and wrestlers cheered for Fiordiliso after the match. They barely stopped moving their hands when Monroe’s 113-pounder Nick DePalma got a takedown seconds after the handshake. The junior locked in a tight cradle and got the pin in :31 as Monroe took a 9-3 lead.
From there, Monroe never trailed and increased its lead to 21-9 following Nick Lombard’s pin in 2:40. The senior 145-pounder improved to 26-0.
When it was over, the school played “New York, New York” sung by Frank Sinatra like it does after every wrestling match as fans high-fived the wrestlers.
“We really enjoy wrestling at home,” Jacoutot said. “When you start putting Ws up, they come out of the woodwork. And the students buy in, too. So we’re starting to get a little bit of student following and the alumni base. We have parents in the stands of kids that graduated two, three, four years ago still coming to support. So you can feel there’s a wrestling culture here, and that’s ultimately what you want. It’s not a sport that gets it all the time. … To the match itself, our kids respond to that. And we gutted out a lot of things. When things were hard, we found a way.”