Bound Brook Wrestling

Don Bosco gets a dose of reality

SUNDAY, JANUARY 19, 2014

BY  GREGORY SCHUTTA

STAFF WRITER

THE RECORD

BOUND BROOK – Don Bosco has been riding high lately with a huge win in the Virginia Duals and its lineup getting healthy at just the right time.

But Saturday afternoon, the Ironmen went into Bound Brook and were brought back to earth – hard – by the Crusaders, 36-19, in a showdown of top 5 wrestling teams in the state.

"They punched us in the mouth and we had no answer for it," Bosco coach Chris Bitetto said after the Crusaders handed the Ironmen their first loss of the season. "They came right out ready to wrestle."

The Crusaders won 10 of the 14 bouts, earning bonus points in five of them to avenge last year’s meeting, when Bosco won with a win in the final bout.

Returning state champion Craig Delacruz won the feature bout of the day with a 3-1 decision over Bosco’s Kyle Bierdumpfel, a returning state runner-up, at 126.

"We thought we potentially could win at 120, 126 and 152," said Bitetto, whose team cruised to a 69-6 victory over Newark Academy in its other match at the tri-meet. "Obviously they have a state champion at 126, but we have a state runner-up who is also very good."

But it was Bound Brook that took full control early.

Bosco’s Dominick Mandarino dropped a 7-6 decision to Stephan Glasgow at 120, giving up the winning takedown with three seconds remaining after controlling Glasgow for most of the final two periods.

Delacruz then outlasted Bierdumpfel in the hard-fought bout at 126.

Returning state champ Luis Gonzalez got Bosco (10-1) back in the running with a first-period pin at 132 to cut Bound Brook’s lead to 11-10. But the Crusaders went on a tear, winning the next five bouts and earning bonus points in three of them to take a 29-10 lead with four bouts remaining.

"Craig has done that a thousand times, winning a close match like that," Bound Brook coach Shaun Cleary said. "We did feed off that momentum."

Returning state place-winners Luke Farinaro and Zack Chakonis tried to keep the Ironmen in it in the upper weights.

Farinaro bumped up to 182 to face Bound Brook ace Isaiah Soto and came away with a come-from-behind 3-2 victory in overtime. Chakonis wasted little time with a first-period pin at 220.

"Luke is not afraid to wrestle from behind," Bitetto said of Farinaro, who tied the bout on a stall call late in the third and won in overtime when Soto was called for an illegal move. "Luke gets stronger as the match goes on."

Now it’s Bosco that will be looking for more strength as it goes from one hostile environment in Bound Brook to another in Jersey City, where the Ironmen will face another state-ranked opponent in St. Peter’s on Monday morning.

"The coaches have been talking all year about this match and St. Peter’s," Bitetto said of the back-to-back challenges. "But the coaches can only say so much. Eventually it’s got to come down to leadership from [the wrestlers]."