Thursday, February 14, 2008

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Darren Wilson (right) scored a clutch pin at 275 to help Hackensack pull off its second straight state tournament upset at North Bergen.

NORTH BERGEN – When two hard-nosed teams like Hackensack and North Bergen face off on the mat, the match often comes down to bonus points in a handful of swing bouts that prove to be the difference. With them battling each other on Wednesday night for a berth in the North 1, Group 4 section final, the stakes were raised and those matches became even more important.

Trailing by five points to North Bergen’s Jared Zuckerman heading into the second period, Hackensack 171-pounder Adrian Wilson turned the tables and scored a pin, which gave Hackensack the lead for good. After giving up the first 16 points of the match, the sixth-seeded Comets won eight of the next nine bouts, four of which they were either trailing or tied as they pulled their second upset of the week to reach with the section final with a 37-31 victory over the second-seeded Bruins.

North Bergen wasted little time in jumping out to a sizable lead in the first three bouts. Julian Quintero at 125 pounds and Bob Dabal at 130 had first-period pins followed by a major decision from John Vazquez to make it 16-0 in North Bergen’s favor.

Juvanne Gordon (right) got the Comets on the board at 140 pounds with a major decision.

Juvanne Gordon got Hackensack on the board at 140 pounds with a major decision before teammate Michael Tiernan and Alex Estella locked horns at 145. After a scoreless battle that lasted well into the third period, Tiernan escaped with 35 seconds left to take a 1-0 lead. But a poke to the eye of Estella with seven seconds left gave him a penalty point, which sent the match into overtime. With seven seconds left in the extra session, Tiernan scored a takedown to win the match 3-1.

The match was tied when Wilson and Zuckerman took to the mat. Zuckerman took down Wilson right off the opening whistle and quickly earned three back points to take a 5-0 lead into the second stanza.

Wilson started off on top to begin the second period and got Zuckerman in trouble 35 seconds in. Zuckerman nearly wiggled his body out-of-bounds, but Wilson did not allow him to do so. He not only pulled him back in, he wrapped him up and scored the pin to put Hackensack ahead for the first time in the match, 22-16.

“I was thinking that I I’ve been in this position many times before,” said Adrian Wilson. “I just had to suck in my energy and then I hit him with the cradle. (North Bergen) was a pretty good team and this is a good win. We were in the section final last year and we came so close, this year we want to win it even more.”

Hackensack's Michael Tiernan won in overtime at 145 pounds.

“The mat sense Adrian (Wilson) had to bring him back in and get the pin was huge,” said Hackensack head coach John Stallone. “He has great mat sense and it showed.”

North Bergen’s Jio Vazquez bumped up to 189 pounds and scored all of his points in the third period to cut Hackensack’s lead in half. But the Comets responded with two huge pins at 215 pounds and heavyweight to put the match away.

North Bergen’s Will Gill took down Jonathan Price early, but he did not stay down for long. Near the end of the first period, he turned Gill and decked him for the pin in 1:43.

Tied 1-1 early in the third period, Darren Wilson took down Bruin heavyweight Julian Torres and appeared to break his nose in the process, which stopped the match for several minutes. With tape covering his face, Torres answered back with a reversal to tie the bout with a minute to go.

“I was mad at myself when he tied it, and I had to make up for it,” said Darren Wilson. “I knew he wasn’t going to give up and I wasn’t going to back down either. I wasn’t even thinking about the pin. I just wanted to take him down, get the win, and help out my team. When I had the chance to pin him, I just went for it and it worked out.”

Hackensack will face Bloomfield on Friday night in a rematch of last season's sectional final.

That could have been a mentally crippling blow to Wilson, but it only seemed to make him angry. He came back with a double-leg takedown and notched the pin with just 13 seconds left in the match. Michael Raccioppi clinched the upset with a 4-0 win over Jorge Reyes at 103 pounds.

“Things just didn’t go out way tonight,” said North Bergen head coach Jerry Maietta. “We had some big matches and we didn’t get the wins we needed. The match at (145) was a big match, and lost in overtime, (171) we’re up five points and a foot from being out-of-bounds and get pinned. Can’t take anything away from Hackensack, they are a well-balanced team.”

Either way, Hackensack will get a long-awaited match in the North 1, Group 4 final on Friday night. They will either face top-seeded Randolph, or fifth-seeded Bloomfield. The same Bengals program that won the final bout of the night, and because of that, won on criteria last year’s North 1, Group 4 final in Hackensack to deny the Comets the section crown.

“The three matches that could have went either way went our way tonight,” said Stallone. “Our teams are very similar. They are very tough and we try to be the same way. We never quit and we’re going to give you a good fight. All the teams in our section are very good. We didn’t look past Monday night (a win over Passaic County Tech), and we’re not going to look past tonight. We take it one match at a time. Now we’ll refocus and get ready for whoever we have on Friday.”

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