SPORTS

Wrestling: Watchung Hills' Hayward pulls off upset in Region IV

Angel D. Ospina
@AngelDOspina
North Hunterdon's Tucker Kirchberger (bottom) tries to escape the hold of St. Peter’s Prep’s Nichols Santos during their 145-pound bout at the Region IV quarterfinals on Friday at Union High School.

UNION - Entering the NJSIAA wrestling Region IV quarterfinals on Friday night at Union High School, Watchung Hills junior Justin Hayward had a tough task ahead of him as he was set to wrestle second-seeded Brian McGovern of Cranford.

Despite earning the seventh seed, Hayward remained confident in his ability, and knew his spot on the 160-pound bracket would not matter the moment his foot hit the line.

Hayward pulled off the biggest upset of the night as he defeated McGovern 5-3 to advance to the semifinals, where he will take the mat against No. 3 Michael Fernandes of Voorhees.

MORE: SOUTH PLAINFIELD WRESTLING ADVANCES 7 TO REGION IV SEMIFINALS

RELATED: SOUTH RIVER'S ZARGO ADVANCES AT REGION V

READ: MANVILLE'S CASWELL AVENGES LOSS AT REGION V

“I just want to go after everyone,” Hayward said as he downplayed the upset. “I’m just trying to remember last year when I didn’t finish where I wanted to. That just keeps fueling me and I just keep going. I just want to get to the final.”

Last year, Hayward fell just short of qualifying for the regionals with a fourth-place finish as the top three wrestlers advance. Despite Hayward’s motivation, his journey to the semifinals was in jeopardy when he found himself trailing 2-0 against McGovern early in the first period on Friday. The relentless junior was able to stick to his game plan and tied the match up at 2-2 in the final minute of the opening period.

In the second period, Hayward won the toss and chose to take the bottom, where he was able to stand up and escape immediately for a 3-2 lead.

“I chose bottom and I just knew I had to get out to get one (point),” Hayward said.

With the 3-2 lead, Hayward was able to tire out his opponent from the top and sealed the victory late in the third period with another reversal to clinch the 5-3 decision victory.

“I think my preparation has been a lot different since a lot of it has been fueled with falling short and failing on a stage like last year,” Hayward said. “I just want to stay alive.”

Ridge senior Nolan Bianchi (182) was another wrestler who kept his gold medal hopes alive as he defeated Irvington’s Tyhmir Lassiter for the second week in a row.

Last week, Bianchi clinched the District 15 championship with a triple-overtime 2-1 victory against Lassiter. On Friday, the two wrestlers squared off again in another thriller as they were tied heading into the final period at 0-0. Bianchi took the bottom to start the third period and was hoping to repeat last week’s win in similar fashion as he clinched the district title by escaping from the bottom in the third overtime. But the familiarity between the two wrestlers showed as it seemed we were heading to another overtime match until Bianchi finally escaped to take a 1-0 lead with under a minute remaining in regulation.

“I know he loves the cross-face cradle, so I knew that was coming,” Bianchi said. “I knew it was going to be another great match, he is a great competitor. I watched the film on him, learned some stuff and tried wrestling cerebral.”

While Bianchi was the only wrestler representing Ridge in the regional tournament, Bridgewater-Raritan had four wrestlers wrestling on Friday. The Panthers advanced three of the four wrestlers to the semifinals.

Matt Sacco (126) was the first Bridgewater-Raritan wrestler to take the mat on Friday and got the Panthers off on the right foot as he earned a major decision victory at 8-0 against Millburn’s Dylan Saggio. Van Miller (195) was the second to advance to the semifinals as he defeated Niccolo Colucci of St. Peters Prep with a 3-2 decision. Jake Raboy (220) earned the final victory of the day for the Panthers as he pinned Elizabeth’s Azir Lawson at 3:44.

“We went 3-for-4 and I think those guys had a good day but the big day is really tomorrow,” Bridgewater-Raritan coach Greg Evans said.

North Hunterdon also advanced three wrestlers to the semifinals as Andrew Gapas (132) defeated Watchung Hills’ Rob Saum with a 12-2 major decision victory. Cole Marra (160) followed suit with a 7-3 victory against Joe Senatore of Watchung Hills. Senior heavyweight Charles Tordik took the mat last for the Lions and advanced with a pin 17 seconds into the second period after a scoreless first two minutes.

“I really just wanted to go after it,” Tordik said. “I just really have something inside of me that says go for it. “

While Tordik has his eyes set on qualifying for states for the first time in his career, he is most proud of how much his team has progressed this season.

“I’m so proud of our team, we have three guys in the semis and a bunch of guys who are going to come here and get after it in the wrestlebacks,” Tordik said. “Really proud of those guys, we really turned it on late in the season. They said we weren’t going to do much in the beginning of the season and ended up doing great things this year.”

106: Larry Melchionda (Seton Hall) 30-6 won over Xavier Laracuente (Woodbridge) 21-12 (Fall 1:44); Aidan Taylor (Voorhees) 24-12 won over Xavier Pena (North Plainfield) 26-5 (Dec 8-7); Gabriel Leo (Roselle Park) 27-10 won over Connor Robinson (No. Hunterdon) 24-7 (Dec 11-6); CJ Composto (Westfield) 31-3 won over John Ojeda (Linden) 30-10 (TF-1.5 4:30 (17-1).

113: Anthony Capece (Cranford) 25-2 won over CHRIS DALMAU (Rahway) 24-7 (MD 11-0); Colby Koshinski (Voorhees) 24-12 won over Alex Amato (So. Plainfield) 24-16 (Dec 5-2); Luke Hoerle (Westfield) 29-6 won over Brock Laggini (Somerville) 27-4 (Dec 11-4); Mark Montgomery (Roselle Park) 33-1 won over Demetri Wojciechowski (J.P. Stevens) 26-10 (Dec 8-1).

120: Joe Heilmann (So. Plainfield) 38-0 won over Hunter Rinehart (Voorhees) 29-9 (Fall 1:49); Sabri Murray (Rahway) 32-1 won over Jon A Mejia (Roselle Park) 28-5 (Dec 7-1); Maguire Pecci (Seton Hall) 32-5 won over Danny Miller (Watchung Hills) 28-6 (Dec 4-2); Michael Kelly (St. Peter’s Prep) 18-2 won over Zach Rabinowitz (Westfield) 20-15 (TF-1 5:06 (20-4).

126: Jake Giordano (So. Plainfield) 37-2 won decision over Conor Halpin (Cranford) 20-15 (MD 18-6); Matt Sacco (Bridgewater-Raritan) 27-9 won over Dylan Saggio (Millburn) 29-10 (MD 8-0); Charles Cunningham (Seton Hall) 31-6 won over Joshua B Mejia (Roselle Park) 30-6 (Fall 3:30); RHISE ROYSTER (Rahway) 30-0 won over Kyjuan Hutchins (Union) 26-4 (Dec 6-4).

132: Chris Scorese (Cranford) 31-1 won over Jack Cannon (Scotch Plains-Fanwood) 26-14 (TF-1.5 4:17 (16-1); Andrew Gapas (No. Hunterdon) 29-2 won over Rob Saum (Watchung Hills) 28-7 (MD 12-2); Christopher Fuschetto (A.L. Johnson) 37-2 won over Tyler Leeds (Somerville) 25-7 (Dec 5-1);- Aaron Coleman (J.F. Kennedy) 33-1 won over Dylan Camilo (Roselle Park) 22-15 (Fall 3:03).

138: Tom Digiovanni (Cranford) 32-2 won over William Hughes (No. Hunterdon) 20-10 (Fall 2:00); Philip Angelo (Summit) 27-3 won over Jake Smith (Seton Hall) 30-6 (Dec 7-2); Bob Dinger (Middlesex/Dunellen) 38-3 won over Luke Pero (Colonia) 30-3 (Fall 5:02); Joe Sacco (So. Plainfield) 36-4 won over Owen Smith (New Providence) 32-9 (Dec 5-2).

145: Nicholas Santos (St. Peter’s Prep) 28-5 won over Tucker Kirchberger (No. Hunterdon) 20-7 (MD 11-0); Kyle Bythell (So. Plainfield) 34-6 won over Michael Acitelli (Summit) 29-2 (Dec 10-4); John Poznanski (Colonia) 30-4 won over Efrain Davila lll (Bayonne) 31-7 (MD 11-0); Jeff Johnson (Middlesex/Dunellen) 39-1 won over Marc Larson (Watchung Hills) 25-12 (Dec 7-2).

152: TJ Calas (Seton Hall) 31-1 won over Rene Perez (Roselle Park) 29-8 (Dec 5-0); Charlie Buckley (Brearley/Dayton) 23-5 won over Edward Mathewson (Bridgewater-Raritan) 11-4 (Dec 3-2); Cole Marra (No. Hunterdon) 25-4 won over Joe Senatore (Watchung Hills) 25-9 (Dec 7-3); Nick Zuena (Union) 33-2 won in sudden victory - 1 over Alex Mastronardi (Bernards) 30-7 (SV-1 3-1).

160: Marquan Payne (Woodbridge) 34-5 won over Nick Luberto (No. Hunterdon) 18-11 (Fall 0:39); Ben Lundy (So. Plainfield) 29-11 won over James Cruz (St. Peter’s Prep) 20-10 (Dec 3-1); Michael Fernandes (Voorhees) 38-0 won over Sebastian Iakouchevitch (A.L. Johnson) 33-5 (Fall 2:16); Justin Hayward (Watchung Hills) 28-6 won over Brian Mcgovern (Cranford) 29-4 (Dec 5-3).

170: Bryan Mclaughlin (Woodbridge) 38-1 won over Doug Chacon (New Providence) 25-9 (TF-1.5 5:28 (16-1); Quinn Haddad (Governor Livingston) 32-3 won over Griffin Rocco (Watchung Hills) 24-10 (MD 12-3); Aidan Monteverdi (Seton Hall) 35-0 won over Abel Crespo (Roselle Park) 21-15 (Fall 0:45); Vince Concina (Cranford) 31-2 won over Isaiah Reese (Westfield) 19-10 (Fall 0:59).

182: Sam Wustefeld (Scotch Plains-Fanwood) 36-3 won over Sam Gladson (Millburn) 20-8 (MD 14-3); Nolan Bianchi (Ridge) 32-1 won over Tyhmir Lassiter (Irvington) 32-5 (Dec 1-0); Sean Aston (J.F. Kennedy) 31-6 won over Zackary Cottrell (Woodbridge) 30-7 (Dec 6-3); Turner Haddad (Governor Livingston) 31-3 won over Scott Fernandes (Voorhees) 33-6 (MD 14-4).

195: Van Miller (Bridgewater-Raritan) 19-1 won over Niccolo Colucci (St. Peter?s Prep) 19-10 (Dec 3-2);Luke Niemeyer (So. Plainfield) 34-3 won over Dylan Budnik (Cranford) 22-12 (Fall 4:31); Lewis Fernandes (Voorhees) 31-8 won over Andrew Joachim (New Providence) 27-10 (Fall 1:41); Jack Miller (Westfield) 34-2 won over Yousef Abbas (No. Hunterdon) 14-10 (Dec 6-0).

220: Zach Delvecchio (So. Plainfield) 38-1 won over Jacob Estevez (Bayonne) 29-8 (MD 14-2); Vincent Zecchino (Woodbridge) 22-8 won over Jonathan Alvarado (Seton Hall) 11-5 (Dec 4-3); Jake Raboy (Bridgewater-Raritan) 27-3 won over Guiessepi Castanza (J.F. Kennedy) 24-8 (Fall 3:44); Farhan Khan (Carteret) 32-1 won over Phil Ricca (Westfield) 22-4 (Fall 7:22).

285: Alex Esposito (Cranford) 27-0 won over Sam Huff (Voorhees) 20-13 (Fall 0:55); Danny Petrela (Summit) 29-1 won over Daniel Tomlinson (Governor Livingston) 26-7 (Fall 3:59); Alexander Lagrippo (Woodbridge) 35-5 won over Jacob Pidgeon (Somerville) 19-10 (MD 15-3); Charles Tordik (No. Hunterdon) 26-0 won over Nikolaos Diakides (Seton Hall) 23-10 (Fall 2:17).