Satuday, January 23, 2010

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Ray Donnelly's win at 215 pounds set off a string of five straight victories for Old Tappan, which knocked off Pasack Valley, 53-12 on Friday night in NBIL action.

OLD TAPPAN -- Four the first four bouts of Friday night's dual meet against NBIL rival Pascack Valley, the Old Tappan wrestling team was locked in a close match. In fact it was losing when Damien Murburg's first period pin at 171 pounds gave Pascack Valley a one-point advantage. But as the lineup gains weight, the Golden Knights gain confidence and the edge against most opponents.

That is what happened against Pascack Valley as Ray Donnelly won a 10-4 decision at 189 pounds and kicked off a five-bout winning streak that put Old Tappan comfortably in front on the way to a 53-12 win and an 8-2 mark in dual meets this season.

Iyi Okunlola had a pin in 1:51 at 215, Mike Shannon followed with a stoppage of his own in 1:53 at 275 pounds, Jesse Massaro won in a technical decision (17-0) as the lineup turned over to 103 and Anthony Miuccio took a 6-1 decision to take the Golden Knights from down 9-8 in team score to the 31-9 advantage that was quickly insurmountable.

The aptly named Dan Ressler (right) had PV's lone pin.

“I knew the kid [Joe Voto] was good. I have seen him wrestle before and I think I wrestled a little sloppy. I had him on his back and I should have kept him there, but I was just trying to get a win for the team and get our run going,” said Donnelly, who led 6-1 after one period, 10-4 after the second period, but battled to a stalemate in the neutral position for the entire third. “Once we get to 189 and then 215 and then to heavyweight, it is pretty tough to stop us as a team.”

Iyi Okunlola took take of business at 215 and Shannon, who improved to 19-0 on the season, gave his team a pretty good working margin with his first period pin.

“I try not to look at the individual record. I worked hard all off season and I am working hard now to. I take it match by match and try to get one win at a time,” said Shannon, who won the Bergen County title at 275 and helped lead Old Tappan to the team title in the same tournament. “Tonight was a good way to get ready for tomorrow. We have Montville and Kittatinny, two of the better teams in the state. We want to go out there and show everyone that we can compete with those teams.”

Pascack Valley competed early Mike Hausch, wrestling in the night’s first match, took a 5-1 lead after two periods, saw OT’s Cameron Lukas get back to win 5-4 with three back points early in the third period, and then regain control in a 9-4 win at 145.

Bergen County champion Mike Shannon improved to 19-0 on the season with his pin at 275 pounds for Old Tappan.

Darius Charles’ major decision at 152 put Old Tappan in front for the first time at 5-3 and Justin Mullen followed with a 9-2 win at 160 before Murburg gave PV its last lead with his pin in just 77 seconds at 171. But after that it was all Old Tappan.

“I wouldn’t say that I was surprised with any of the matches, but I will say that Anthony Miuccio wrestled a real good match against a tough kid [Dean Piterski] and really controlled it pretty well and I thought hat Iyi Okunlola looked very good on his feet, too, against a very good kid [Phil Beahm],” said Old Tappan head coach Rob Ortiz. “We matched up pretty well with Pascack Valley because they have good upper weights and so do we, so we were able to cancel out some of the strengths that they can usually exploit against other teams.”

Dan Ressler ended Old Tappan’s string of five straight wins with his 6-3 win at 119 pounds, but the Knights took the next three and were granted a forfeit at 140 pounds to end the match. OT’s Steven Ortiz built a 7-1 lead through two periods before pinning at 4:38 at 125, Zack Frohlich pinned in 1:14 at 130 and Joe Rambala pitched a 9-0 shutout at 135 to give Old Tappan a 47-12 lead before the forfeit provided the final margin.

Mike Hausch's 9-4 win at 145 pounds got Pascack Valley off to a good start.

“Eight-and-two is a good record, but we want to win every match and if you ask our guys I am pretty sure they would all say that they would like to be better than 8-2 right now,” said Rob Ortiz, the OT head coach. “We’ve had some guys in and out of the lineup, but we have kind of settled things down and the guys who are in there now are really started to gain confidence and they are getting the job done.”

Old Tappan is closing in on the league title, which would be nice to add to the county title it has already won, and is looking forward to the state tournament as well. The Knights’ only losses this season have come in independent matchups against St. Joseph Regional and Paramus and with their ambitious out of league scheduling; they are clearly looking to test themselves in preparation for the post season.

“We kind of had a setback with Paramus and Joe’s, both in the same weekend, but we have a couple of big matches tomorrow and we are trying to make some noise on a state level,” said Shannon, who has already done that on an individual level. “If we can compete with or beat either of those two teams [Montville of Kittatinny], that is what would happen. We scheduled them to try to get some power points and recognition and that is what we are looking to do.”

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