Wrestling: Delaware Valley wins 1st Group II title since 1999
TOMS RIVER — The little guys saved the day with late pins in the morning semifinal. In the afternoon championship, the big fellas applied the muscle. In between, the Delaware Valley wrestlers piled up bonus points, gutted out close wins and kept losses close.
It all added up to the Terriers’ first NJSIAA Group II championship since 1999 and eighth overall. Sunday, Del Val beat Collingswood 34-24 in the semifinal and then defeated Hanover Park 30-28 to claim the hardware at the Pine Belt Arena. The Terriers clinched in the next-to-last match and forfeited the final bout.
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Delaware Valley (23-3) has a storied wrestling tradition with 17 Central Group II sectional titles, but it’s been 18 years since a state group title.
Last century.
“This is a whole generation,” Terriers coach Andy Fitz said. “These kids do not know what this feeling is like. They look at those pictures up on the wall every day in practice, they might as well be Hoosiers. They don’t know what it is. Now, they’re going to get, I don’t know what it is, a 10-by-8-foot picture up on the wrestling team wall and cement their legacy.”
Yes, they tasted victory in living color.
Hanover Park (17-5), the North 2 champions from Morris County, took a 13-12 lead after an overtime win at 182. The Terriers responded with two pins and a late decision at heavyweight for a 27-13 lead. After a 1-0 loss at 106, it ended at 120. Delaware Valley’s AJ DeRosa rallied for a 3-1 win in the third period to make it 30-22. The sophomore leapt into his teammates arms and the celebration was on.
“It’s been a long time coming,” DeRosa said. “All team today. All team. … We knew we had to be up by six before that last match, and we did it. We got it done. When I went out there, I knew what I had to do. I knew I had to win and that was that. It was scripted. It was such like a script. We knew exactly what we had to do and we just did it.”
Each team won seven matches (including the Delaware Valley late forfeit), but it was the bonus points that lifted the Terriers. Eli Kalfaian (195) and Kyle Lightner (220) got pins, Matt Kolonia got a relentless 19-3 technical fall at 138 and Sean Lessig earned a 17-4 major at 170. At 152, Chase Bauberger won 4-2 and heavyweight Josh LaDuca got a stalling point with 10 seconds remaining to pull it out 2-1. Many Del Val wrestlers were holding up a right fist to urge on the referee to call the stalling.
Before the 195-pound match, police went into the stands to stop an argument. The benches looked to see what was happening and the match was briefly stopped. When the whistle was blown, Kalfaian got a pin in 48 seconds, followed by Lightner’s pin in 57 seconds. The junior remained undefeated at 16-0.
“That really got the tide going our way,” DeRosa said of the two pins. “Everybody on the team got ramped up.”
Lightner added: “That was a big momentum swing for us. We knew we needed those two matches to go our way with pins. So when we got those two pins, I felt spirits lifted on the team. … We felt good after those two matches.
“We knew we were going to get those pins there. It was the heavyweight and 106 is where we really needed those matches to go our way. Tanner (McLaughlin at 160) did a great job. I want to shout him out too. He went out there against a real tough kid, Liberato, and didn’t get pinned.”
At 106, Dylan Uderman (6-4) lost 1-0 to Hanover Park’s Jake Bursese (21-12). At 160, the Hornets’ Matt Liberato (17-7) beat McLaughlin 11-2, but he didn’t get additional bonus points. Additionally, Delaware Valley’s Connor Mills (12-5) lost 9-2 at 132 to open the bout against Lou Raimo (26-7), but got an escape in the third period to take away the major decision. It turned out, every point mattered.
“That’s what we’ve done all year,” said Fitz, whose father Vince guided the program to six Group titles. “It’s been a total team effort.”
In the 9 a.m. semifinal, Delaware Valley defeated Collingswood 34-24 to advance. The Terriers held an 8-6 advantage in bouts and beat the Camden County school for the second year in a row in the semis. (Del Val won 33-24 in 2016.)
It wasn’t without drama. Collingswood (25-5), the South Group II champs, took a 24-22 lead after a pin at 106 with two matches remaining. It was Collingswood’s first lead of the match.
No fear. At 113, Tommy Schlittler had a 28-second pin for a 28-24 Del Val lead. DeRosa followed with a fall at 1:37 to seal the victory. Also getting wins for Delaware Valley were Gage Crater (7-4 at 126), Kolonia (16-4 at 138), Rhys Zigich (3-0 at 145), Bauberger (8-1 at 152), Lessig (3-2 at 170) and Lightner (pin in 1:32 at 195).
“Tommy pinned that kid so quick, I didn’t even know,” DeRosa said. “I was just getting warmed up and Fitz was like, ‘Oh, you’re up.’ I didn’t even know what the score was or anything. He just said you need to win and that was that.”
And the end result?
“It’s so much pride and excitement,” DeRosa said. “Every day in that room we know what we’re working towards and we got it done today. This is what Fitz has been saying since the start of the year. He drilled in to our heads. We worked hard. Extra running. Extra this. Extra practice. Extra working out and it paid off. It paid off in the end.”
Delaware Valley 30, Hanover Park 28
132: Lou Raimo (HP) over Connor Mills (Dec 9-2); 138: Matthew Kolonia (DV) over Marco Zecca (TF 19-3 0:00); 145: Sean Conley (HP) over Rhys Zigich (Dec 2-1); 152: Chase Bauberger (DV) over Nick Zarra (Dec 4-2); 160: Matthew Liberato (HP) over Tanner McLaughlin (MD 11-2); 170: Sean Lessig (DV) over Sebastian Bassolino (MD 13-4); 182: Rory DeLuca (HP) over Shawne Ramsby (TB-1 2-1); 195: Eli Kalfaian (DV) over Pasquale Dimaiolo (Fall 0:48); 220: Kyle Lightner (DV) over Daniel Jimenez (Fall 1:00); 285: Josh LaDuca (DV) over Giancarlo Dellanno (Dec 2-1); 106: Jake Bursese (HP) over Dylan Uderman (Dec 1-0); 113: Domenic Difrancescantonio (HP) over Tommy Schlittler (Fall 0:30); 120: AJ DeRosa (DV) over Michael Rubin (Dec 3-1); 126: Nicholas Raimo (HP) won by forfeit.
Delaware Valley 34, Collingswood 24
126: Gage Crater (DV) over Joe Downing (Dec 7-4); 132: Gabe Onorato (C) over Connor Mills (Dec 2-1); 138: Matthew Kolonia (DV) over Will West (MD 16-4); 145: Rhys Zigich (DV) over Riley Onorato (Dec 3-0); 152: Chase Bauberger (DV) over Billy Plianthos (Dec 8-1); 160: Sean Miles (C) over Tanner McLaughlin (Fall 3:00); 170: Sean Lessig (DV) over Aaron Carter (Dec 3-2); 182: Nick Barnes (C) over Shawne Ramsby (Dec 3-0); 195: Kyle Lightner (DV) over Kingsley Ayeni (Fall 3:16); 220: Michael Taulane (C) over Eli Kalfaian (Dec 6-1); 285: Matt Meloni (C) over Josh LaDuca (Dec 3-2); 106: Andrew Clark (C) over Dylan Uderman (Fall 3:33); 113: Tommy Schlittler (DV) over Brian Cole (Fall 1:32); 120: AJ DeRosa (DV) over Joe Tenuto (Fall 1:37).