Wrestling: Delaware Valley wins Central Group II sectional final

ALEXANDRIA - While both sides of the crowd were going crazy, Josh LaDuca couldn’t hear a thing.

“You don’t hear the cheering until after the match,” the Delaware Valley heavyweight said. “Everything comes together after the match, and it’s much better after the win.”

LaDuca and his Terriers teammates had plenty of time to get noisy when it was all over. LaDuca had a rousing come-from-behind pin in the third period, and Delaware Valley earned a surprising 36-23 win over playoff rival Raritan in the NJSIAA Central Group II championship Friday.

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Top-seeded Delaware Valley (21-3) advanced to Sunday’s Group championships at the Pine Belt Arena at Toms River North. Second-seeded Raritan ends its season at 26-3.

“They just wrestled their hearts out,” Delaware Valley coach Andy Fitz said. “You could set your watches by this match. It’s an unbelievable rivalry. We have a lot of respect for Raritan. We do a lot of stuff with them on the offseason. I communicate with (Raritan coach Rob) Nucci all the time. I wish them the best. It just went our way tonight.”

The two schools have developed a rivalry despite the nearly 60 miles from Monmouth County to Hunterdon County. Success has trumped logistics. Friday’s meeting was the 11th matchup between the schools in the postseason since 2003. (Del Val has an 8-3 edge.) The last four meetings had an average margin of victory of 1.75 points. Take 2016 when the Terriers won on criteria after a 29-29 tie.

Friday’s intensity was no different. The atmosphere included a packed crowd with students from both schools standing and chanting throughout. Some Delaware Valley students held cutouts of wrestler’s faces and Raritan students wore singlets.

On the mat, though, another classic was expected. Instead, Delaware Valley held an 9-5 advantage in matches, took tossups, got major decisions from stars and got a disqualification when a Raritan wrestler appeared to throw a quick punch in frustration.

“Right from the get go,” Nucci said, “they won the coin toss and they were able to get the matchups they wanted up top, but the bottom line is they won nine bouts and we won five. We needed to wrestle better tonight and they were the better team tonight. It’s frustrating, three years in a row losing in the sectional final. We’re frustrated, but we’ll get back at it again.”

With Delaware Valley leading 16-11 with eight bouts remaining, the Terriers won five of the next six matches to clinch the win. That included a nine-point team swing when Delaware Valley’s Matt Kolonia won by disqualification at 145 over Christian Sookdeo. Kolonia led 13-2 in the third period when Sookdeo appeared to throw a quick jab at him on the edge of the match.

That gave Delaware Valley six points and Raritan was deducted three team points. Nucci said he thought it was more of a shove.

“From my angle I didn’t see a punch,” he said. “It was a physical match. I don’t know, I didn’t think it was a punch.”

The nine-point swing, though, didn’t have an effect on the final score. The Terriers simply won too many matches.

Delaware Valley got a pin by LaDuca (285), major decisions from AJ DeRosa (120), Tanner McLaughlin (152) and Kyle Lightner (220) and decisions from Gage Crater (126), Rhys Zigich (145), Shawne Ramsby (182) and Eli Kalfaian (195).

Raritan got pins from Robert Taddeo (106) and Anthony Aquilano (152), a 19-3 technical fall from Charles Barrale (113) and a decision from Russell Benson (132). They also got a forfeit at the final match at 170.

A swing took place at the line between the big guys and little guys. At heavyweight, Delaware Valley’s LaDuca (8-7) trailed Dylan Kansky 5-4 entering the third period. But the senior worked in a two-on-one and walked it around to his head, pinning Kansky (14-11) in 5:20.

At that point, Delaware Valley led 16-0. Soon, it was 16-11. At 106, the Rockets’ Robert Taddeo (21-9) pinned in 1:30 and at 113, Charles Barrale (21-1) got a 19-3 technical fall over Tommy Schlittler (4-4). Barrale threw his opponent to his back with about 40 seconds left, but couldn’t get the pin as Schlittler fought off his back. That notably saved a bonus point and elicited cheers from Delaware Valley’s bench.

In the next match at 120, the Terriers earned a bonus point on AJ DeRosa’s 9-1 win over Cameron Rafalto. DeRosa turned him for two back points with just over 20 seconds left for the major.

At 126, Delaware Valley freshman Gage Crater (11-5) earned a 7-4 win over AJ Erven (24-4), sealing the match with two back points in the third.

The match started in the tossup zone with a tussle of sophomores at 182. Del Valley’s Shawne Ramsby (7-3) methodically defeated Justin Acevedo (16-8) 3-0 via a takedown with seven seconds left in the first period and a second-period escape. Ramsby rode out his opponent the entire third.

At 195, the fans again erupted when the Terriers’ Eli Kalfaian (10-4), who was taken down by Ryan Dickens (13-10) with just under a minute into the first period, reversed his opponent to his back. The only problem? The Raritan wrestler’s shoulders were out of bounds so no back points were awarded. Kalfaian escaped in the second period and got three back points off legs and a half nelson for the 6-2 win.

When it was over, Delaware Valley posed for pictures and changed the all-time win tally on the wall in its workout room to 750. By then, all the wrestlers in the blue and yellow heard the cheers.

"Everything came together and it was awesome," LaDuca said.