Hoffman Estates wraps up West crown
Not even a classic Alfred Hitchcock thriller could have matched what wrestling fans watched Friday night at the Conant-Hoffman Estates dual.
With a Mid-Suburban West divisional title at stake, a big crowd inside the Hawks' field house witnessed nearly each point and bout contested to its fullest, with each side giving its faithful plenty to cheer -- until late in the night, when the Hawks' Brian Kempf and Nico Silvestri brought the home fans to their feet.
Brought even at 20-20 following a 18-8 major decision by Patrick Scully at 119, Kempf recorded a pin at 5:43 and then watched his teammate do the same at 4:39 to give the Hawks a commanding 32-20 lead at the time and an eventual 35-23 victory. It clinched the Hawks' first division title since 2002.
"It was a night when everyone made a contribution, win or lose," said Hoffman Estates coach Bill Scully, whose starting lineup listed just one senior (Justin Busca, 135) on Hawks senior night.
"Give Conant credit tonight," said Scully. "They've been MSL West champs so many times, and they were not going to give in tonight (at) all and it showed in the way they wrestled.
"But tonight there was a great atmosphere, and it was fun watching both sides wrestle so hard, and of course, us coming out ahead as well."
Gamesmanship was in order during introductions as neither side wanted to show its hand at a handful of weights. In the opening bout, Rocco Silvestri (145) gave the homeside the lead after a 10-4 victory over Gino Castiglione who has been in the lineup for the Cougars (4-1) just 3 weeks.
After a 5-1 win by Mark Chereso at 152 to even the match, the lead went to the Hawks' favor (7-3) just briefly when Andrew Petit scored a 15-2 major decision.
Things looked brighter for the visitors after a forfeit and 6 points from Joe Patricelli and an impressive effort by Sean Smith in his technical fall at 5:41 to push the Cougars ahead at 14-7.
The Hawks (11-8, 5-0) rebounded with the help of its big men (Jose Flores, 215 and Mike Eisele, 285) as Flores won 12-4 over Jake Prestia and Eisele unloaded on Greg Davies with a fall at 3:53.
"So many of the matches were so close (tonight) and we had a couple of terrific victories and efforts at 103 (Vince Gottardo), Nick Shay at 112, as well as Will Lang, who despite losing to Scully did very well in just his first match of the year," said Conant coach John Kane.
Kempf saw his chance to close out Dave Kim leading 5-2 in the third period.
"When I finally got (Kim) turned over I was thinking what coach Scully would want me to do at that point," began Kempf.
"So I sunk a reverse half and just held on until the ref called the pin."
Nico Silvestri knew before the match that if he followed Kempf with the same result, the divisional title would be the Hawks'.
"I just squeezed and held on until I got the pin, which seemed like forever," Silvestti said. "It's great that we have so many young guys on this team and were able to win a big match when we needed to."
The Hawks join MSL East champ Wheeling as the co-favorites next weekend at the MSL tournament, which begins Thursday evening at Wheeling.