Jacobs ends its frustration with Dundee-Crown
Oh what a night of wrestling Thursday at Jacobs.
The Golden Eagles (10-11-0) erased years of frustration with Dundee-Crown by rolling over the visiting Chargers 57-23 to thrill a big Heritage Night crowd in Algonquin and finally put an end to 23 straight losing seasons to their District 300 rival.
Firing up a noisy home audience, eager to see its heroes finish the regular season on a high note, the Golden Eagles went on a pin frenzy, opening the proceedings with a fall from Jake Mrzlak at 170 then adding another 6 more, including 4 in a row to break things open and give coach Chris Taylor and his staff one of its biggest victories since taking over just 3 seasons ago.
“When I took the job, my assistants (Don Wallace, Dave Nowak and Jim Harrier) asked me if I knew what I was getting myself into, but those same individuals also said there was a gold mine of talent here and in the community and tonight, with just two seniors in our starting lineup, and four freshmen, you’re starting to see what all of us hope will be a bright future for the Jacobs wrestling program,” said Taylor, who before things got started honored just a handful of seniors, as well as the next wave of young wrestlers, due to make their mark in the coming years.
“Everyone has bought into the program, and what coach is hoping to build, and in the last couple of weeks, you can see us come together as a team and as wrestlers, and it’s kind of exciting to know that we’re going to be a part of something special here,” said senior Gabe Difecchio (195, 24-8), one of the few ‘grizzled’ veterans who has been around since the very beginning.
“When I was a freshman, we were something like 4-20, but now, we’ve got a nice blend of youth and experience, and we’ve got Austin (Ryan) and a bunch of really good freshmen. The future looks bright.”
The two sides would trade pins in the early going, with Jimmy Kuczynski (182) and Raymond Griggle (220) answering whatever the home side would deliver, until Mark Mamola (18-4) used all of 3:47 to put away (Jeremy Marshall at 285 pounds and give the Golden Eagles am 18-12 lead it would never relinquish.
Sandwiched in between falls from freshmen Anthony Vana (106) and Jake Gatz (15-6) at 120 — the Golden Eagles’ top man Ryan (28-3) recorded a pin at 3:27 to help fuel a 21-0 run by the hosts’ lower weight group to all but put away the Chargers for good as they found themselves all of sudden trailing 45-12.
“Obviously, the strength of Jacobs is at their top half of their lineup, and they showed it tonight, but with that said, I thought we did well considering that just about everyone bumped up a weight to make sure that we could fill out our lineup and not give away any forfeit points,” said D-C’s first year head coach Bob Skillman.
Ryan, who was a state qualifier last season in his rookie year, leads a power-packed group of young Jacobs talent, including the aforementioned Gatz, as well as teammates Cody Ferencz (20-7, 126) and Jacob Orth (14-5), who was out of the lineup, and just as Difecchio, is thrilled to be a part of the Golden Eagles rebuilding program.
“Coach expects 110 percent all of the time from us, both in and out of the room, but he also puts in the same amount of work himself, and it’s that type of mentality that has changed the culture here so quickly,” offered Ryan, who next weekend will be one of the favorites in the 106-pound division at the FVC tournament, along with Cary-Grove freshman Michael Cullen.
Elijah Velez (138) and Tim Schanmier (152) each contributed strong efforts for the visitors, with Velez registering a fall at 1:43, and Schanmier a tech-fall at 5:35, but a trio of pins from Michael Ricks (132), Brad Schumacher (145) and Matt Montani (160) in the finale, helped put an exclamation point on this memorable evening for the Golden Eagles.
“We’ve had a couple of close matches with Cary-Grove and Crystal Lake South in the past week which didn’t go our way, but this was a terrific way for the regular season to end. But we still have a lot of work ahead of us as we prepare for the conference tournament next weekend,” said a proud Taylor.