Libertyville clinches tie for NSC Lake title
Host Stevenson put up a pretty good fight, but the Patriots were unable to overcome a strong start by Libertyville on Friday night in North Suburban Conference wrestling action.
Starting the dual meet at 112 pounds, the Wildcats built a 16-5 lead after five matches before holding off a late Stevenson surge en route to a 28-23 NSC Lake Division victory.
With the win, Libertyville (11-4, 5-0) clinched at least a tie for the Lake Division crown. The Wildcats can win the division outright if they can defeat Zion-Benton next Friday at home.
The Patriots (9-6, 3-2) fell behind 4-0 when Libertyville 112-pounder Kyle May posted a 10-1 major decision to open the meet.
Pat Fitzgerald followed with a technical fall at 119 for the Wildcats. But a technical fall by Stevenson 125-pounder Danny Sabatello (24-0) cut the lead to 9-5 early on.
Libertyville kept the pressure on though behind 130-pounder Luke Gaeth's 7-4 decision over Max Nolan and 135-pound sophomore Austin Pettinato's 14-5 major decision to build the 16-5 advantage.
The Pats bounced back with an 8-2 decision by 140-pounder Alex Garvin before 145-pound teammate Mark Futterman held on for a 4-3 decision over Kevin Tavakoli to cut the gap to 16-11.
“One of the keys to their victory was bonus points in matches,” said Stevenson coach Shane Cook, whose team split the 14 bouts. “But we understand Libertyville is a quality program and, historically, the best team in the conference.”
After Futterman's win, the momentum swung back to the Cats, as 152-pounder Sayad Banifazl's 7-3 decision over Justin Weber and 160-pounder Nate Yordy's pin in 1:30 boosted their lead back to 25-11 with five matches left.
Stevenson 171-pounder Ken Waks pulled out a 7-5 overtime victory against David Allen. But Libertyville 189-pounder Luke Miller's 7-1 decision kept the lead at 14 points (28-14) with three bouts to go.
“Going into the last three matches up by 14 points we knew we couldn't get pinned,” Gaeth said. “The matches were 7-7, so bonus points were huge.
“Zion-Benton was pretty inexperienced last year, but now they're fighters so we've got to stop them.”
Stevenson 215-pounder Brandon Weber kept the Pats' hopes alive with a 4-1 decision over Richard Vachula to make the score 28-17 with two bouts left.
Stevenson 285-pounder Mike Kuhn recorded a 10-6 win over Erik Fischer, but that only cut the lead to 28-20 and the Patriots' fate was sealed. Stevenson 103-pounder Brendan Wood recorded a 6-0 decision to account for the final score.
“We knew they had some really good guys coming at the end so we knew we needed to get a big lead which we did,” said Libertyville coach Dale Eggert. “We got some extra points at some of the places we knew we needed them and in the end we kept the matches as close as we could against some pretty good guys.”