By: Sean Moylan
This past Saturday at Bordentown, the Bordentown Regional High School boys’ varsity wrestling team proved to any remaining Doubting Thomas’s out there that wrestling is indeed a team sport.
The Scotties proved that in a 39-38 victory over Saint Joseph’s of Hammonton. Meanwhile, Bordentown dominated Lindenwold, 70-6, and Penn’s Grove, 63-13, on the very same afternoon.
"Saturday was the best part of Bordentown wrestling (I’ve been associated with)," said Bordentown head coach Joe Sprague. " Our fans were great."
While Sprague deeply appreciated the lopsided victories over Lindenwold and Penn’s Grove, he saw the win over Saint Joe’s as a turning point in the season.
With his team up 39-33 in the final match of the day, sophomore 152-pounder Dean Kreiser did what his coach asked him to dohe "stayed alive" in his match and did not lose by pin. And although Kreiser "officially" lost by a technical fall, it was one of the Scotties’ greatest regular season triumphs ever.
"The Saint Joe’s match was awesome. We wrestled our most complete match of the season," remarked Sprague.
However, it did not look good in the opening match at 160 when Bordentown lost a point because Josh Slezak’s shoes were not taped properly (which the Bordentown coaching staff accepted the blame for).
Consequently the Scotties found themselves down 7-0 when Bordentown’s Billy DeKovitch stepped onto the mat at 171 and quickly restored order with a fast pin.
Then, Nick DeKovitch (189) lost and Bordentown forfeited at 215, but Jon Gens kept the Scotties’ chances alive with a big pin in his heavyweight bout.
At 103, the Scotties Karam Khalifa subtly kept his team in it to win it.
"Karam (Khalifa) lost by decision to a kid he got pinned by last time they wrestled," noted Sprague.
Andrew Carthan, Bordentown’s 112-pound star, won by pin.
At 119, Bordentown’s Ryan Gray was slammed illegally early in his match. If he had chosen not to go on he could have won by disqualification. However, a banged up Gray bravely continued and lost by a technical fall.
Then, Mike Schoenhaar (125) and Joel Presa (130) each posted easy pins for the Scotties.
And while Tyler Sheehan lost by pin at 135, Corey Pritchett won a major decision at 140 and Brent Clemens won by pin at 145 to put the Scotties in the driver’s seat going into Kreiser’s final bout.
It was a great day for Clemens, who pumped his record to 12-0 with three wins (two were by forfeit). B. DeKovitch won all three of his bouts with pins to improve his record to 11-2. Presa had three pins in the day while Schoenhaar had two. Corey Pritchett recorded three victories on Saturday.
Although he lost his match to a Penn’s Grove opponent, Jason Crivelli, a freshman heavyweight, made Sprague proud with his great effort.
Bordentown creamed Gloucester Catholic 64-15 last Wednesday at home. Gens (215), Schoenhaar (125), Presa (130), Justin Moore (135), Clemens (140) and B. DeKovitch (171) all won with pins. N. DeKovitch (275), Khalifa (103), Corey Pritchett (160) all won their bouts by forfeit.
Moore’s victory, however, came with a price.
"Justin Moore wrestled tough but he got hurt," noted Sprague. "He’ll be out another week."
The best match of the day was at 112, where Carthan trounced Recchutti 12-2.
Last week the Scotties were under .500. This week Bordentown is 7-4 and Sprague says over half his grapplers are "on fire."
The team is shooting for 15 wins this year and it should get there is it stays healthy.
Bordentown was scheduled at Riverside yesterday (Wednesday). It is scheduled to host Bridgeton and Gateway Regional this Saturday.

