St. Charles East pins loss on North

The St. Charles East wrestling team made it a decade-long sweep of St. Charles North in the schools' annual pre-Thanksgiving dual meet on Wednesday night at Wredling Middle School.

St. Charles North freshman Jordan Scalice had a second-period fall in the opening match at 112 pounds to give the North Stars an early lead.

But it was virtually all St. Charles East the remainder of the evening.

The schools combined to forfeit five matches, with East receiving an 24-6 edge in the non-contested bouts.

Of the remaining nine matches, however, the spread was equally one-sided as the Saints recorded 5 pins and a technical fall in posting a 59-21 victory.

The combined point total was only 4 points away from the maximum possible.

“It's a good thing when it goes your way,” St. Charles East coach Steve Schmerz said of the flurry of truncated matches. “It's bad when it doesn't.”

Joe Dede, the Saints' lone returning state qualifier, needed only four seconds of the third period to record his technical fall, which included a 3-point near fall and four 2-point near pins.

“I wanted to go out there and get the cobwebs out,” the 119-pound senior said. “I haven't really wrestled a real match in a while.”

Freshman Isaiah Vela then provided the Saints a lead never to be relinquished with a second-period pin and resulting 11-6 St. Charles East advantage at 125 pounds.

Nick Ruffino, looking to regain his state-qualifying form from two years ago, was barely tested at 130 pounds for another St. Charles East fall.

Junior Peter Belllino then made it three falls in succession when he beat the second-period horn by 13 seconds at 135.

When the teams traded forfeits over the next two weight classes, the Saints held a commanding 38-12 cushion.

In the lone match to go all six minutes, St. Charles North senior Sam Gustafson whitewashed the Saints' Cam Carlson 7-0 at 152.

But seniors Tyler Clark and Mike Caddy ended any thought of a North uprising with consecutive falls at 160 and 171 pounds for the Saints.

“I just wanted to get in and get out as soon as possible,” Caddy said.

The Saints then received three more forfeits over the next four classes to account for their unusually-high point total.

“We're just so undermanned out there,” North coach Ken Moromi said. “It's just like last year. We don't have too many heavier wrestlers at our school.”

But there was one notable upper-weight triumph for the North Stars: senior Vince Fricke ended his heavyweight match in the first minute with a fall.

“I have been practicing that (throw) move for the last two or three years,” Fricke said. “That's my specialty move.”

Scalice also had a promising start to his career at 112 pounds.

“Basically as a freshman, I was happy to be a varsity wrestler,” Scalice said. “I was confident out there.”