Vernon Hills' Brazil aims to revise history
CHAMPAIGN — Jeremy Brazil has been replaying his 2011 state final with Ross Ferraro over and over again, basically ever since the Vernon Hills big man fell 4-3 to in the Class 2A wrestling state championship bout last February in Champaign.
Tonight, Brazil gets a chance to rewrite history.
Brazil (44-1) shut out Jake Cochrane of Carmel 4-0 victory in Friday night's semifinal round, which sends the senior into the final against Seth Gonzalez (Yorkville, 39-6) with the chance to win Vernon Hills' first individual wrestling state title.
Grayslake Central senior Joey Valdivia (21-6) stunned No. 2 Jake Davis (41-2) of Sycamore to earn his place in the finals at 195. But Mundelein's Matt Ornoff, favored to win it all at 138 pounds, dropped a 9-4 decision to St. Rita's Tim Corse (32-6) in his semifinal. Ornoff may have suffered a hip injury during the match, making his presence in today's consolation bracket questionnable.
“Yeah, I haven't forgotten about last year's final ever since we came off the mat,” said Brazil, with proud coach Jerry Miceli alongside.
Brazil's lone defeat of the season is to the No. 1 man in Class 3A, James Buss of De La Salle, in the finals of the Leyden Invite just after the new year.
“We had a plan against (Cochrane) and Jeremy put it all into place perfectly,” said Miceli. “Now we're just 1 win away from that championship we've been chasing, and I can tell you it couldn't happen to a better young man.”
“Once I went up (2-0) on Jake,” said Brazil, “I knew that I was too big and strong for him, so I just pounded on him, and I could tell as the match went on, he was beginning to slow down.”
“Jake had to wrestle the match of his life tonight because Jeremy is such a great wrestler,” said Carmel coach Bob Kuykendall.
Both Ornoff (41-1) and Grayslake Central's Dylan Hay (37-9, 145) appeared to be on course to reach the Saturday night finals, only to be sideswiped by opponents with the same idea on their mind. Hay had the difficult task of facing No. 1 Lavion Mays (42-1) of Mascoutah, who started quickly, building a 6-2 lead after two minutes and adding points along the way before ending with a 12-6 triumph.
Hay drops into the consolation bracket and will still take a run at a state medal. He'll be waiting to see if either George Gonzalez (Antioch, 34-5) or Connor Bass (36-5) from Yorkville will line up across from him, as wrestlebacks continue Saturday morning.
“Dylan has been such a great teammate all season long, actually wrestling two weights up at 160 just to help the team — he's an incredible leader for us,” said Grayslake Central coach Dan Catanzaro.
Ornoff's loss was especially disappointing, particularly after it appeared that he'd won one of the matches that typically keep the championship ball rolling — a 6-4 OT win in the quarterfinals over Jim Spangler of Joilet West. That set up his semifinal with Corse, who came into the tournament rated seventh in the state.
“It's all about wrestling six minutes as hard as you can, and when you do, good things can happen to you,” said Corse, a repeat state qualifier.
Ornoff opened with the first takedown, but it was all Corse after that as the senior built a 6-2 lead, fought off a late flurry from Ornoff and finished it off with the Mustangs' four-year standout in obvious pain.
For Lake County, the action is mainly in the consolation bracket for many who still have their eyes on a coveted state medal and top six finish.
Devon Tortorice (Wauconda, 120, 34-3) and Mike Gussarson (39-6) are still alive at 126, as is Shakheim Chapman (Warren, 40-2) at 195 and Grant's Quinton Quarles (38-5), who next meets Max Triveline (38-7) of Prospect.