By: Kyle Moylan
The New Egypt High School wrestling team had both of its matches come down to the final two weights this past week.
On January 14, Craig and Jimmy Morton came through with clutch performances, lifting New Egypt to a 41-39 win over Palmrya.
This past Friday, New Egypt was defeated in its last three matches and ended up dropping a 40-33 decision to Point Pleasant Beach.
"Being in these types of matches definitely helps the guys," noted New Egypt Coach Adam Angelozzi, who also had a setback to Hightstown in another tight contest the previous week. "These types of matches build character."
Against Palmyra, the match started at 125. Mike Schmidt (125) and Miguel Garces (130) won by forfeit. Chris Springer (135) and Dan Murray (140) followed with pins. After Dan Gold picked up a forfeit at 145 and Skeeter Cook a technical fall at 152, the score was 35-0 in favor of New Egypt.
It didn’t stay that way.
Palmyra won the next six matches by pin or forfeit and grabbed a 36-35 lead with just 112 and 119 left.
Fortunately for New Egypt, Craig Morton was at 112. Morton, the defending District 25 champ, pinned Zach Spears in the first period.
"You have to figure that Craig is going to win," noted Angelozzi. "The big match was with Jimmy Morton at 119. They could have still won with a pin. He had to stay off his back."
Angelozzi believes Jimmy Morton put aside personal glory and went out on the mat to wrestle in a way best for the team. He lost a 9-2 decision to Mike Ahrens, but he won New Egypt the match.
"He wrestled for the team," Angelozzi said. "He came through for us pretty big."
On Friday, New Egypt had a 33-25 lead heading into the final three matches against Point Pleasant Beach. Unfortunately, all went in favor of Point Pleasant Beach in what ended a 40-33 setback.
Noel Larios (103), Schmidt (125) and Garces (130) all won by forfeit. Jimmy Morton (119) and Lee Hopkins (160) won by pin. Johnny Law (189) added an 8-7 decision over Brendan Neary to help New Egypt build its early lead.
Pt. Pleasant Beach won by pin at 135 to cut the New Egypt lead to 33-31. It added a key 9-7 win by Mark Ashley over Chris Springer (140) before closing out the match with another pin at 145.
In earlier action, Cook lost a tight match at 152 as well.
"We lost one match by two points and another by one," Angelozzi noted. "The difference between a win and a loss were three points in matches."
New Egypt was scheduled to wrestle against BCIT Medford this past Wednesday night. On Saturday, New Egypt will be at Bordentown for a tri-meet that will also include Metuchen. The first match will start at 2:30 p.m.
While noting he wasn’t totally familiar with all of the teams New Egypt will be facing and that Bordentown has a full lineup and is a tougher team than in the past, Angelozzi believed this could be a very productive week for New Egypt.
"We don’t want to look past anyone and these teams do have talent, but I’m hoping at the end of the week we’ll have won all three," Angelozzi said. "We’re not going to take anyone lightly. We’ll have to wrestle well, but if the team that wrestled against Hightstown (back on Jan. 12) shows up, we should win."
AHS
Sean Mulligan had a perfect week. Unfortunately, the Allentown wrestling team did not.
Mulligan, Allentown’s 103-pounder, won four times during the week. As a team, however, Allentown was defeated in all four matches.
Allentown began action with a 42-36 setback to Trenton on Wednesday, Jan. 14. This was a match where Allentown dominated the lower weights and Trenton was tops up top.
Trenton didn’t even have someone to face Mulligan (103), Pat Pape (112) or Matt Schottlander (119). Trenton did have wrestlers at 125 and 130, but Allentown pinned them. Derek Bachmann pinned Carl Peels in just 54 seconds at 125 pounds. Nick Pape pinned Augustin DeJesus at 3:36 at 130. Matt Valnoski also picked up a pin for Allentown over Maurice Norwood (140) at 2:21.
Trenton had pins at 145, 152, 160 and 189. Trenton won by forfeit at 215 and 275. This balanced out the score between the two teams. The key matches were at 135 and 171.
At 135, Trenton’s Rudy Rodas edged Rob Bruins, 9-6. At 171, Naaman Betha edged Bruce Allen, 4-2.
Allentown also had a very busy day this past Saturday, wrestling three times.
Allentown was defeated by Lawrence, 62-9. Kyle Bachmann (125), Nick Pape (135) and Mulligan (103) all won by decisions, accounting for the Allentown points.
Allentown was also defeated by Princeton, 51-24. Kyle Bachmann (125) and Rob Bruins (145) won by pins. Mulligan picked up a forfeit at 103. Derek Bachmann (130) and Matt Schottlander (119) accounted for Allentown’s other two wins by decisions.
In its other match, Allentown was defeated by Hamilton, 59-22.
Mulligan finished off his perfect 4-0 week with a forfeit. Only Lawrence even put a wrestler against the talented Redbird.
Schottlander pinned Joe Werner in 3:07 at 119 and finished a productive week with three wins.
Bruce Allen (171) won by pin over Antonio Diggins. Nick Pape (135) defeated Rich Whitehouse, 11-1, for Allentown’s other win.
Allentown was scheduled to wrestle against West Windsor South last night. This Saturday, Allentown will be at Notre Dame for a tri-meet that will also include Hightstown. Allentown will be home Wednesday, Jan. 28 to host Ewing at 6:30 p.m. That will be the last match before the Mercer County Tournament, which will take place on Jan. 30-31 at Trenton High School.
