Jacobs tops Huntley to earn share of FVC Valley title
Jacob Sabella's late show performance raised the curtain in style for Jacobs Thursday night.
Before a noisy packed house at Huntley, Sabella would win the deciding final bout of the evening to give the Golden Eagles a thrilling 32-28 victory to put Gary Conrad's club in the drivers seat for the Fox Valley Conference Valley Division crown.
The 4-point win gives Jacobs (13-0-0,4-0-0) at least a share of the division title, with just Dundee-Crown remaining on its schedule next Thursday at home.
"It was exactly the type of dual we expected here tonight and with this great crowd on hand, it just shows how great high school wrestling can be," said a relieved Conrad, who would watch the lead go back-and-forth all night, until the Golden Eagles made their move with three bouts to go.
"Beau (Harrier) got us a big win at 113 over a very good opponent in Zach Spencer, and before that, Michael (Bucacz) got us a pin we didn't expect, but (David) Dudych (132) got us closer with his major, before (Chris) Dranka and Sabella came through for us when we really needed it to make the ending just a fantastic one for us," Conrad said.
Coming off a strong team effort last weekend at the Sycamore Invite, where it finished third overall, Huntley (16-5, 3-1) appeared poised to make a giant step forward in the division race with the inspiration of Senior Night before a full house in the air to give the home side that little extra something needed on this important night.
"Maybe we're a better tournament team than (dual) - I guess we'll see in the coming weeks," began Red Raiders head coach BJ Bertelsman. "Going in I figured we could win 8 of 14 tonight, but instead, it was only (six) - a few we should have won, and a couple of others we conceded pins (in) and one or two that I thought we should have been awarded a pin.
"But none of that matters, especially the last couple of years against Jacobs. It's always a close one so now we look ahead to another chance when the conference tournament rolls around."
Things began brightly enough for the Red Raiders when Brad Zbilski registered a major decision win at 152 but senior Dean Lane (17-1) answered with a major of his own to begin an emotional roller-coaster ride for fans of both sides, with each and every bout cheering for their heroes.
Loren Strickland's impressive effort at 182 ended with a technical fall win to put the visitors back on top, only to see his 5 points erased by Justin Allen, who produced a pin at 3:34 to give Huntley a slight edge at 10-9.
Back and forth it would go, until the aforementioned Harrier (18-2) used a takedown in front of his bench to grab an early lead en route to a 4-1 decision over Spencer.
"It was a good win for Beau, but last year, the same thing happened with Spencer, and after that he came back to finish his season very strong," said Bertelsman.
Junior Josh Stenger (29-4), currently No. 7 in this week's state polls, dominated at 113 to earn his 15th pin of the season to put the hosts back in front (25-21) which soon become 28-21 after Joey Armijo garnered a hard fought 5-4 win over Zach Peters.
The stage was then set for Dudych (19-6), Dranka (18-3) and Sabella (20-4) and the trio came through in high style, scoring the next 11 points to help secure the Golden Eagles' biggest win of the year thus far.
"I expected it to be very close tonight, but there was never a time tonight when I didn't feel confident in my teammates that we could pull this one out," said Dranka (138) whose 17-3 major gave the Eagles the lead for good at 29-28.
"I was doing the math in my head as each match came and went, and when there were just four left to go, I kind of figured it would come down to me, and I just said to myself let's do it," smiled Sabella just moments after his 6-1 win at 145 pounds.
Sabella and his mates travel to Urbana this weekend, before preparing for their FVC season finale at home with Dundee-Crown, while Huntley is at Stevenson on Saturday to face the state-ranked Patriots, in addition to No. 6 Deerfield. After that, its Crystal Lake South, then the Antioch Mega-Duals on January 23.