Huntley handles Jacobs
Things haven't gone well the past two seasons for Huntley's wrestling team when facing Fox Valley Conference rival Jacobs.
Last year especially, when the Red Raiders saw their chances for a division title dashed on the final bout of the evening in a 32-28 defeat.
Thursday night proved different with the Red Raiders going out to a big lead then fighting off a brief Golden Eagles comeback before closing out their guests for good with a 42-22 victory.
"Jacobs has some very good kids, and so do we but we won the matches we should have, got a couple of others here and there, but wrestled a little messy and not too smart at times also yet still got ourselves a nice win tonight," said Huntley head coach BJ Bertelsman, whose club goes to 8-3-0 overall, with a chance to be 3-0 in the division when it hosts Cary-Grove tonight.
"After losing the last two years to (Jacobs) it was kind of nice to come away with a win against our rivals tonight but we'll see them again later on when it really counts at regionals, and all of us have a lot more work to do before then," admitted junior Zach Spencer (126) who was one of four that advanced to the state tournament for Bertelsman last season, winning 38 in the process.
The strength of the Red Raiders this winter will be at the lower end of the lineup after graduation ravaged the top half of the lineup and with the aforementioned Spencer and his teammate Josh Stenger (120) leading the way, the home side would increase its advantage to 15-6 after each would decision their opponents.
The dynamic duo followed a pin from Christian Benetiz (285) in the contest opener, and a 5-3 decision from Sammy Spencer at 106 with their deserved victories after Jake Harrier of Jacobs recorded a pin at 3:52.
"There were not too many highlights tonight," began Jacobs head coach Gary Conrad, who like his coaching counterpart saw his talented group of big men go the college route, leaving plenty of youth and inexperience in their place.
"We've got a lot of sophomores in our lineup at those weights, and aside from Loren Strickland (2016 sectional qualifier) at 182, all of those guys are new to our starting lineup."
"We've been getting better each time out, but tonight you saw our youth shine through."
Joey Armijo (132), Luke Loprieno (138) and Jason Pawlak (145) proved too much for their opponents from Jacobs, with the trio adding 15 points on the scoreboard - Loprieno with a pin in just 1:19 minutes, and Pawlak at 4:27 when it appeared the senior was in all sorts of trouble in the third period.
Cole Patrician scored 7 unanswered points to go ahead 11-4, before Pawlak turned the tide and registered his fall.
The 15-point explosion gave the Red Raiders a 30-6 cushion, which was narrowed to 33-22 after Jacob Sabella (160), Reese Wiggins (170) and Strickland earned the Golden Eagles 16 points with a pair of technical falls, plus a pin from Wiggins.
Justin Allen (195) and sophomore, Nik Wise (220) would close out the Golden Eagles with an 8-1 decision, and pin at 5:23.
"David (Dudych) lost a tough one (7-6) to their terrific freshmen (David) Ferrante, but we gave away far too many others along the way," said Conrad.
Jacobs is now 6-4-0, with two of those losses coming at the hands of conference foes Crystal Lake Central and now Huntley.