Wrestlers See Split Results in Tri-Meet

Cranford High School's wrestling team hit something of a bump in the road over the weekend.

The Cougars lost to perennial tough Roselle Park 47-24 Friday night, then routed Scotch Plains-Fanwood 61-9 Saturday morning in the first of two matches at Piscataway High, but then lost to the host team 40-31. They fell to 6-3.

"There were at least three or four matches that could have went either way and they got the better of us in every swing bout,'' said Cranford coach Darren Torsone of the Piscataway match.

The Cougars took a 21-9 lead when sophomore J.P. Christiano pinned Josh Cruz at 152 pounds. But Piscataway won the next four bouts as sophomore 160-pounder Tevin Shaw, junior 171-pounder Brandon Stout and junior 189-pounder Kevin Smith all pinned to give Piscataway a 27-21 lead. That was followed by junior 215-pounder Matt Recine's 7-0 win over Cougars' co-captain Julian Campo to make the score 30-21.

Unbeaten senior 285-pounder Joe Brady stopped the Piscataway run with an 11-3 major decision win over sophomore Beniah Harriagan. Harriagan looked to be stalling for most of the match and it took a great effort by Brady to get the bonus points needed to give the Cougars four team points instead of three. Brady had Harriagan on his back as time ran out in regulation.

"I just kept working the whole match and didn't stop working, I thought about the team and what we needed,'' Brady said. "We needed six (points). It didn't come out way.''

"Joe showed some guts coming back and getting some points for the team,'' Torsone said. "And Julian's match was a swing match that could have gone either way. That one got away from us.''

Down 30-25, Cougar freshman 103-pounder Diego Crespo showed grit, limiting Piscataway junior Marcus Windham to an 11-3 major decision. That extended Piscataway's lead to 34-25. Cougar sophomore 112-pounder Ian Henry came out and quickly put sophomore Brandon Mora in trouble, jumping out to a 4-0 lead. Henry led 8-4 after two periods, but Mora rallied and pinned Henry in 4:11 to seal the match.

"Ian was a little too aggressive,'' Torsone said. "We were expecting to get six and six. We came out way too aggressive, ran out of steam and the kid got him.''

The Cougars now prepare to face much-improved Governor Livingston, which will bring a 7-1 dual meet record into Wednesday night's match in Berkeley Heights.

"That should be a battle and it's going to come down to the matches that could go either way. If we wrestle like this they're going to beat us,'' Torsone said. "We have to wrestle tougher and come to wrestle next time. We wrestled flat today.''

The Cougars won 11 of 14 bouts against Scotch Plains-Fanwood with senior 130-pounder Carmine Pellino, junior 140-pounder Eric Knight, Christiano, freshman 171-pounder Rob Kessler, senior 189-pounder Errol Petgrave, Campo, Brady and Henry all winning by fall.