Libertyville grabs second place in NSC

Stevenson's clinched its fourth straight North Suburban Conference wrestling championship Friday night by rolling to a 66-7 victory at Lake Forest to cap off a perfect 7-0 record for the 2017-18 season.

But the dual for second place in the NSC at Warren started off as a much closer affair as the host Blue Devils jumped out to an early 9-0 lead over Libertyville.

The Wildcats (14-6, 6-1) responded with 30 unanswered points after that though as Libertyville went on to post an impressive 52-19 victory over the Blue Devils to lock up second place in the NSC.

Starting at 152 pounds, Warren (15-7, 5-2) got on the scoreboard first when senior Kelvin Cupay posted a 9-2 decision over Tyler Padilla for an early 3-0 advantage.

Then came a pin by 160-pound freshman standout Isaiah Parker in 3:35, and the Blue Devils were suddenly ahead 9-0.

But Libertyville was not stunned by that fast Warren start as 170-pounder Ryan Damenti captured a 3-2 decision over Jariston Clarke with a late third-period takedown.

Then came a pin by 182-pounder Josh Groskopf with 17 seconds left in his match, and a pin by 195-pounder Will DeBruler with 21 seconds left in his match and the Wildcats had the lead for keeps at 15-9 with no looking back.

For the second straight meet, 220-pound sophomore Jordan Smith won his match with just one second left in the third period. After winning by pin in 5:59 Thursday at Lake Zurich, Smith got an escape with one second left in the third period for an exciting 8-7 decision over Armondo Barandey.

Charlie Schmidt (30-4) followed with a pin at 285 before 103-pound teammate Domenic Tarello's forfeit win gave the Wildcats a comfortable 30-9 lead.

"They've got some pretty good guys in their lineup that got them off to a great start," said Libertyville coach Dale Eggert, whose team will be at the Warren regional next Saturday. "It took a lot of work on our part to win those close one's. We've been preparing all year for the regionals, and we'll see if we're ready."

At 113 pounds, Austin Nash captured a 15-5 major decision before 120-pound state-ranked freshman Joel Vandervere (32-2) won by pin in 2:48 to cut the lead to 30-19. Libertyville's Matt Templeton (126) missed his second straight meet due to illness.

Peter Kafkis picked up a forfeit win for the Wildcats at 126 before teammates Danny Pucino (34-2 at 132), and Michael Gunther (138) followed with technical falls. Libertyville's Will Bertaud closed out the meet with a pin.

"Libertyville has a solid team and they did what they were supposed to do," said Warren coach Brad Janecek. "We gave up some bonus points which you can not do against a good team."

"We've got two really good freshmen right now, eight sophomores in the lineup, and three juniors so as far as this being a rebuilding year I couldn't be prouder," added Janecek.