Wild start, one-sided finish in Libertyville's favor
Visiting Libertyville got an unbelievable win to start the meet at 220 pounds, and the Wildcats wrestling team never looked back in this North Suburban Conference dual meet at Lake Zurich on Thursday night.
Down 8-4 late in his match to freshman Alan Pantoja, Libertyville's Jordan Smith recorded a pin with just one second left in the third period to give the Wildcats an early 6-0 lead.
From there it was all downhill for Libertyville (13-6, 5-1) as the Wildcats posted an impressive 49-9 NSC victory over the Bears (10-8, 2-3).
State-ranked Charlie Schmidt (29-4) added a forfeit win for the Wildcats at 285 before 106-pound teammate Domenic Tarello posted a 7-2 decision over Vinny Pasquesi to extend the lead to 15-0.
The Wildcats found a way to win almost every close match, including Ian Riley's 13-10 decision over Lake Zurich 113-pounder Logan Neurauter, who had a near-pin in the first period but could not put Riley away.
Then came 120-pounder Brandon Murphy's 10-2 major decision over Justin Wollard, and the Bears were facing a daunting 22-0 deficit right out of the gates.
"We had our 220-pounder (Justin Miller) out so we put our freshman (Pantoja) up, and just a little bit of inexperience showed, but he has a bright future with great things to come," said Lake Zurich coach Jake Jobst. "I'm not like disappointed with how we wrestled, but we lost almost all of the 1- and 2-point matches."
Lake Zurich did find a way to win a close dogfight at 126 as junior Jason Wollard captured a narrow 2-1 decision over Peter Kafkis to break up the early shutout.
But then came the heart and soul of Libertyville's lineup as 132-pound sophomore Danny Pucino (33-2) recorded a pin in 2:51 before 138-pound junior teammate Michael Gunther's pin in 1:52 gave the Wildcats a commanding 34-3 advantage at that point.
Libertyville will be at Warren (5-1 in NSC) Friday night for a huge second-place showdown to close out the dual-meet schedule. Stevenson has basically locked up the NSC crown heading into its final dual meet of the regular season.
Libertyville coach Dale Eggert was happy with how his team performed Thursday, including the late-match heroics of Smith.
"I thought he (Smith) had enough to tie it up, but I didn't expect a pin," said Eggert, whose team placed second to Stevenson last weekend at the Lake County meet. "At 113 he (Riley) got down 5-0 right away and came back, and (Tyler) Padilla and (Nick) DiMaggio always have a good match."
Lake Zurich did win another super-defensive battle at 145 as George Gritsonis got an escape in triple overtime to capture a 1-0 decision over junior Quentin Hart.
Then at 152, Padilla outlasted DiMaggio 8-6 in a back and forth match before teammate Niko Christensen nipped Lake Zurich's Joey Mrazek 1-0 at 160.
Senior Josh Goldberg had a solid 9-2 decision over Lake Zurich's Ryan Damenti at 170, but the team outcome was well out of reach at 40-9 with two bouts left.
Libertyville 182-pounder Josh Groskopf got a pin in 5:35 before teammate Will DeBruler posted a 4-0 decision over Lake Zurich's Elijah Ogletree to account for the final score.
"We were with them (Warren) in the county meet and it was close," added Eggert. "They are a really good team."