Team drops pair on weekend road trip
By: Rudy Brandl
CLARK Nothing went right for the Manville High wrestling team in Saturday morning’s match at Johnson Regional.
The Mustangs were coming in a bit sluggish after losing a heart-breaking match at Spotswood the previous evening. It was a tough turnaround and the team was suffering from a hangover effect with an early match the next day.
MHS head coach Brett Stibitz wasn’t making any excuses after the 54-21 loss to the Crusaders. He was happy that all 20 of his wrestlers showed up for the optional 7:30 a.m. practice session prior to the bus departure for Clark. The team weighed in at 9 a.m. and started the match an hour later, but clearly wasn’t the same feisty group that grappled in Middlesex County the night before.
"Last night’s team and today’s team were totally different," Stibitz said after his team fell to 4-5 on the season. "We should have won last night and we had to come back early today. This whole weekend was a blur."
The Mustangs needed a better start to pull out a victory at Clark. Stibitz thought his team had a good opening point at 171 pounds but the Crusaders set the tone with two straight pins. The MHS coach figured his team might win both of those bouts, plus 215 and heavyweight to take a big lead.
Clark began the day with Scott Diaz flattening MHS senior Nate Bott in 3:22. Diaz scored two takedowns at the edge of the mat en route to a 4-1 lead at the end of the first period. The Clark grappler chose the neutral position to begin the second period and converted a takedown into a pinning combination for the fall.
Manville 189-pounder Irek Kolodziej made a young mistake and got caught out of position in his bout with Vin Delvecchio. Kolodziej put himself in danger while going for a cross-face cradle and Delvecchio packed him with ease at 1:12.
The Mustangs got back six points when senior 215-pounder Armand Fodorean decked Matt Kohen in 49 seconds. Fodorean needed 13 seconds to get his takedown and locked up Kohen in a nasty cradle to finish the bout.
"I was mad about yesterday," said Fodorean, referring to his bout at Spotswood that ended in a winning decision rather than the desired pin. "I didn’t pick up the leg yesterday. I remembered to pick up the leg today."
The heavyweight bout between Manville’s Josh Krantz and Clark’s Erik Kaminsky was the most entertaining of the day. Krantz survived with a 3-2 decision by holding off numerous tilt attempts in the third period.
Krantz scored the only takedown of the bout late in the second period for a 3-1 lead. Kaminsky chose the top position in the third, obviously hoping to turn Krantz for bonus points of pin him. Kaminsky spent the entire two minutes on top unable to move Krantz, who was penalized one point for stalling but held on for an exciting triumph.
"That was a good match for Krantz," Stibitz said. "He really fought that kid off from the bottom."
If the Mustangs were going to make a move, they needed a pin from 103-pounder Tuan Anh Lee. Unfortunately, Lee fell behind John Capinagro by seven points in the first minute and his rally fell short in an 11-5 decision.
Lee started his comeback with a big five-point move in the closing seconds of the first period but Capinagro was saved by the buzzer. Lee didn’t score another point and Clark took a 15-9 lead.
The win at 103 started a flurry of eight straight wins by the Crusaders. Anthony Priore pinned J.J. Artfitch in 2:54 at 112; Matt Rusin decked Adam Wolcott in 31 seconds at 119; Mike DiMaio outscored Roland Yakobchuck by a 19-7 margin at 125; Frank Coler pinned Jason Pfoutz in 2:32 at 130; Mike Coler packed Jamie Makowski in 1:25 at 135; Mike Newman defeated Bobby Ortiz by an 18-2 technical fall at 140; and Dave Juzefyk flattened Andrew Saultz in 29 seconds at 145.
Manville closed the match with a pin at 152 and forfeit at 160, but those 12 points only made the final score more respectable. MHS senior Greg Fabiyan gave up the first takedown but stormed back to pin Chris Golinas at 1:40. Fabiyan caught Golinas too high and reversed him with 38 seconds to go in the first period. Not much later, Fabiyan locked up a cradle to produce the pin.
Clark didn’t send out a wrestler to battle MHS senior 160-pounder Mike Zala, who accepted a forfeit.
The Mustangs entered the weekend hoping to win at least one of two matches to stay above the .500 mark with the state playoff qualifying deadline fast approaching. With the Mustangs likely to lose against Roselle Park and Rahway this week, another win would have kept them alive going in to that final match before the cut-off at North Plainfield.
"We’re a better team, but we’re still a guy or two short," Stibitz said. "Give us two more matches and the score is a lot closer. We’re a little frustrated, but we’re not upset."

