By; Sean Moylan Sports Writer
In the final bout of the Central Jersey Group I semifinals held at a sold out Robbinsville High gymnasium on February 11th, Anthony Fascenda lost an 11-1 major decision to the Bordentown wrestling team’s 215-pound standout Chris O’Leary.
In other words, Fascenda “did his job with flying colors” and was the undisputed star of the Robbinsville Ravens slim 30-29 victory over the Bordentown Scotties.
“It was so loud those last five seconds of Fascenda’s match you couldn’t hear the buzzer go off at the end,” said Robbinsville Coach Rich Gildner, who knew all Fascenda had to do was not get pinned for a Ravens’ victory. “In the first period Anthony (Fascenda) did a tremendous job of fighting off his back for 40 seconds to avoid getting pinned.”
It wasn’t until midway through the third period that Gildner even allowed himself to think about the team win.
“They were on their feet with a minute to go when I started to feel more comfortable,” added Gildner, whose club would have been awarded a victory based a wrestling criteria had the overall match ended in a deadlock.
Considering the fact that both Gildner and Bordentown head coach Joe Sprague are master strategists when it comes to making out a lineup, Robbinsville gained a decisive advantage when it won the coin flip.
“Winning the coin flip was huge because we were able to get Andrew Harvilla away from Max Bohannan at 160,” said Gildner.
When the Scotties sent out Bohannan at 160, Gildner countered with Jeremy Sander. And while Sander lost by fall, that match set up Harvilla’s impressive 13-6 win over the always tough Matt Bauer at 171. Moreover, the Ravens received another break when one of the Scotties’ top wrestlers did not wrestle in the match.
And while the Ravens’ heavyweight Brandon DiDonato got the evening started with a dominating 18 second pin of Donald Taylor, not everything went totally Robbinsville’s way.
While David Bossie’s 10-1 decision over Bordentown’s 103-pounder Chris Nitschmann, Brian O’Toole’s 5-3 win over Bordentown’s Ryan Lawrence (112) and Jared Icenhower’s 12-0 decision over Drew Pedersen (119) were all impressive victories, the Ravens were expecting even more bonus points out of their lighter weight stars.
“I was expecting a few pins down low. I was hoping to get pins in two of the three matches,” said Gildner, who was hardly over-confident after his team had built up a 17-0 lead after four bouts.
This year and last, Bordentown’s primary strength has been its middleweights, so Gildner was extremely pleased with Jeffrey Condit’s 4-3 win over Derek Chorba (130) and Andrew Reca’s big 5-4 win over longtime Scotties star Andrew Davis (140).
“Reca and Condit were huge. Reca took him (Davis) down with two seconds to go and Condit won 4-3 when he took down Chorba with 13 seconds to go for the winning points,” Gildner noted.
Robbinsville’s Jordon Hankins (145) won a fairly easy 10-2 decision against Evan Gibson. After Harvilla’s match, Robbinsville had pumped its lead to 30-19, which ultimately set up Fascenda’s heroics two matches later.
“I’ve got to be happy we made it to the Group I Sectional Finals. I believe we’re only the third team in Mercer County history ever to do that,” noted Gildner.
Last Friday a powerful Roselle Park team hosted and defeated Robbinsville, 50-18, to win the Group I Championship.
“We lost a lot of close matches. There were a lot of things which could have gone our way to make it closer,” said Gildner, of his 14-4 team. “We went into a (wrestling) war with a pistol and they had tanks and grenades.”
There were some bright spots for the Ravens, however, as DiDonato flattened Roselle Park heavyweight Dave Jaramelo in just 53 seconds. At 103 Dave Bossie pinned Roselle Park’s Jovanni Jaramelo with nine seconds left in the opening period. Icenhower (119) captured an 8-4 decision over Roselle Park’s Anthony Zangari. And Hankins warmed up for Districts by crushing Roselle Park’s Nick Longo (145) 10-4.
Some of the Ravens toughest matches of this season may come during this week’s practices as the team is expecting to have some heated wrestle-offs for the spots at 103, 112 and 119. Regardless of who ends up wrestling in those spots in this weekend’s District 25 Tournament at Steinert High on Friday and Saturday, Robbinsville will have a chance to win in all three of those weight classes. DiDonato (heavyweight) and Hankins are also favorites to advance.
