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Sports

Dodgers Drop Wrestling Sectional Heartbreaker

But Madison can still claim share of conference title.

Despite closing the gap late, the wrestling team was unable to advance in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association North 2 Group 1 state sectional tournament as key losses and unfavorable match-ups led to a tough 33-30 defeat at the hands of Belvidere High School in Madison on Monday night.

A nail-biter throughout, each team held the lead at one point during the match. In fact, Madison trailed by only one point with three matches remaining, after senior heavyweight Mike Boardman recorded a first-period fall over Josh Amabile, making the score 25-24.

But Madison’s chances of advancing were dashed after losses at 103- and 112 pounds gave Belvidere an insurmountable 33-24 lead.

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Despite the loss, Madison (12-3) can claim a share of the conference title with a win against Parsippany High at home on Wednesday.

“Very disappointing,” Madison head coach Steve Healey. “The guys who needed to win didn’t pull through. There were three bouts that I thought we would have, I was pretty confident that we would have, and we didn’t get any of those bouts. And in a [close] match, obviously, if you don’t get three let alone one, that’s the difference.”

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The Dodgers (12-3) got off to a slow start as losses by John Costa and Conor Stark put Madison in a 9-0 hole.

Madison would win three of its next four matches as Max Gotsch (135 pounds), Mike Coviello (145 pounds) and Peter Willis (152 pounds) earned the Dodgers their first lead of the night, 15-12.

But the middle of the Dodger lineup would struggle after Madison's Matt Fastiggi was pinned at 160 pounds, as seniors Ed Carr (170 pounds) and Jack Anzul (189) each lost, leading to a 23-15 Dodger deficit.

“It stinks,”said junior 119-pounder Patsy Davis, who won the final match of the night with a second-period pin. “Our seniors didn’t step up when they were supposed to…you can’t rely on the [less experienced underclassmen], the seniors need to step up and get big wins and that didn’t happen tonight. We didn’t wrestle well as a whole at all. It’s upsetting.”

 Thomas Tracy (215 pounds) would put a halt to the skid, winning a hard-fought 7-6 decision, followed by Boardman’s pin at heavyweight, but it wouldn’t be enough to extend the Dodgers' postseason.

“It’s a one-match difference and a couple of people didn’t step up on the swing bouts, but I guess it is what it is,” Boardman said.

“I think I wrestled well today," he added. "I’ve been in a slump the past week and a half, so I think it was good for me to pin my guy quick.”

While the Dodgers clearly didn’t wrestle to their capability, losing the opening coin toss and giving Belvidere (6-8) control of the match-ups early put Healey in a tough position.

“We would have had Davis on one of the Thorsen brothers [Jesse and Dylan] at 119- and 125-pounds,” Healey explained. “He definitely would have beaten one of the them, the other would have been one hell of a match, but we had to do what we had to do and unfortunately we could get some better match-ups.”

With a share of the conference title up for grabs, Healey said there's no time for what might have been.

“We better rebound quick,” said Healey, “because we have Parsippany on Wednesday and if we beat them then we have a share of the conference title. If we don’t, then we just gave away the sectionals and conference in the same week.”

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