By: Ken Weingartner
Monroe High’s wrestling coaches entered the season knowing they had a small, but solid, core group of wrestlers that could be counted upon in nearly every match.
If the Falcons were going to have success in dual matches, though, they would need some of their younger, less experienced, wrestlers to step up.
After beating East Brunswick last week Monroe’s first win over the Bears to level their record at 7-7, it’s safe to say the Falcons are high striding.
Blaine Miller (103) won a major decision, Colin Fitzgerald (135) won a decision in overtime and Jake "The Snake" Nale (215) had a pin to help set the stage for Monroe to rally for a 35-28 victory over East Brunswick.
Brendan Hodel, at 112, kept Monroe alive in the penultimate bout of the match when he fought off his back to get a pin. Al Rotundo, one of three veterans in the lineup, then sealed the victory with a major decision at 119. Seniors Grant Herring (171) and Justin Lupo (heavyweight) also contributed with earlier pins.
"It’s kind of like we expected," Falcons co-head coach Allen Rushing said. "We knew we would have the consistent winners, but we’re getting mileage and contributions from a bunch of other guys. If we can win two out of three this week, we’ll be over .500 and then we can start thinking about states. We’ll be in the running power points wise. We’ll just keep on it and see what happens. We’re pretty happy."
Monroe was scheduled to wrestle state power South Plainfield Wednesday, North Brunswick Friday and J.P. Stevens Saturday.
In addition to beating East Brunswick last week, the Falcons won 36-31 over Middlesex and lost 42-22 to Sayreville.
Like the East Brunswick match, Monroe got big wins from several unheralded wrestlers to notch the win over Middlesex. Dan Urbanowicz (145) got a pin and Brian Mackiewicz (119) won a decision, setting the stage again for Rotundo to close out the victory, this time with a decision at 125.
"Brian works his butt off," Rushing said. "He’s a sophomore and he’s still tall and skinny; he hasn’t filled out yet. He helped us put it away because you know that when you have Al coming up, you’re OK. That was a big match and good win for Danny, too. That was really the turning point for us. We’d taken some lumps out there, but he went out and turned it around."
Herring, Nale and Lupo all had first-period pins for Monroe while Kevin Urbanowicz won by forfeit.
Against Sayreville, Ryan Worden (189) and Lupo had pins. Hodel won a major decision while Rotundo and Fitzgerald won decisions.
"We hung in there against Sayreville," Rushing said. "All of the matches were reasonably competitive; we didn’t embarrass ourselves. To come back the next day and beat East Brunswick was nice."
A step up, one might say.
BACKPOINTS: Entering action this week, Rotundo led the Falcons with a 16-1 record. His only loss came in December in the Ewing Tournament to a returning state place-winner.
Lupo was 13-1 while Nale was 13-3. Herring and Hodel both had 11-6 records. Justin Mazor was 7-6 while Fitzgerald was 6-6. Nick Garibaldi was 7-9.
A win credited to Hodel last week was reported as a decision. It was, in fact, a major decision.
