Barrington uses late surge to down Schaumburg
Barrington weathered an early lower weight storm from Schaumburg then roared back to win five consecutive bouts en route to a 45-28 Mid-Suburban West wrestling victory Friday night.
"We knew their first four are amazing so it was important for us to stay focused in the early going, wrestle with a lot of heart, and to stay away from getting pinned, while getting ourselves pins whenever we could," said Broncos coach Dave Udchik, whose club is now 4-5-0 overall on the season.
The Saxons' quartet of Brady Phelps, Callen Kirchner, Joey Phelps, and Caden Kirchner are a lethal bunch who came into the contest with a sparkling 39-4 mark and leaving at 42-5 after Broncos senior Brian Beers edged Caden Kirchner 1-0 in their 126-pound match.
"We're young, and inexperienced, especially at the lower weights, plus we have a couple of seniors who are wrestling for the first time on the varsity. But this team is working hard to get better, and tonight turned in a great team effort to get ourselves a big win," said Beers, a two-time state qualifier who will wrestle next fall at the University of Illinois, where he will study Computer Science.
Beers' hard-fought decision would bring the Saxons (8-4-0) back to earth after Brady Phelps (11-10), Callen Kirchner (10-2) and Joey Phelps (11-1) helped the visitors storm out to a 16-0 advantage.
"We were confident that our first four guys could give us the start we were looking for and we thought Caden might have earned a takedown at the edge in the closing seconds in his match but Beers is a seasoned veteran, and he wrestled a very good match," said Saxons coach Mike Levanti, whose team will compete at the Rex Lewis Invite at Buffalo Grove Saturday.
The Beers victory would inspire Chuck Jones (132), Phil Chapa (138), Rhenzo Augusto (145) and Bryan Piscatello (152) to sweep the next four matches to give the home side a 23-16 advantage.
Jones' technical fall, followed by back-to-back pins by Chapa and Augusto, were key to the Broncos' eventual success.
"Jones kept things going for us after Beers' big win and we received terrific efforts from our next three guys - Chapa, Augusto and Piscatello - to give us a lead we never let go of," said Udchik.
Logan Meyer would breath life into the Saxons' hopes when he recorded a pin at 5:09 in his 160-pound match to draw the visitors within one (23-22) but when junior Jon Fiers canceled out that pin with one of his own, the Broncos were on their way.
Consecutive forfeits at 182 and 195 ensured victory with Grant Goss' 12-0 major decision victory in his first varsity contest making it 45-22 Broncos.
Cesar Alvarez-Cuatepitzi would end the proceedings with one last pin for the Saxons.
"We wrestled well in spots, but you cannot give up falls to a team as good as Barrington and expect to win," said Levanti, who recently watched his team go 3-1 at the Plainfield Mega Duals.
"It was a nice win on our teacher and youth night. Several of our young guys wrestled really well, which we'll look to continue on Saturday when we go to Downers Grove South to wrestle five different opponents," said Udchik.