Madison Falls to Roselle Park in Sectional Finals

The Madison High School wrestling team's run for a state Sectional title ended on Saturday afternoon as the Dodgers fell to a very strong Roselle Park team, 51-19, at Roselle Park High School.

The Dodgers, who sat at 16-3 going into the North 1, Group II final, were able to come up with some big wins early but were clearly outmatched at certain weight classes throughout the lineup and unable to hang with the perennial powerhouse.

Shaking things up a bit, Madison head coach Steve Healey sent Christian Mazzocchi out at 145-pounds–Mazzocchi normally wrestles at 152-pounds–to face Roselle Park's Rich Weslock. And the decision paid dividends early as Mazzocchi wrestled well, winning a hard fought 10-9 decision.

Putting Mazzocchi at 145-pounds meant that senior Ryan Colwell would be bumped up to 152-pounds to face Park's Russel Benner. Almost unthinkably, as Colwell shot in for a low single, Brenner somehow caught the Dodgers captain in a headlock and recorded a shocking first period pin.

"We put Colwell up against Benner at 152, and obviously came up on the wrong end of the stick there, but we were taking a chance. Our guy was a region champ and (Benner) was a region finalist a year ago." Healey said. "(Colwell) got caught in a flurry so we didn't really get to see a good match."

From there on though, the Dodger wins would be few and far between.

Next, Anthony Costa (160) lost a 6-3 decision to Dennis Carroll before Ed Carr (171) overcame an 8-0 third period deficit, catching his opponent in a headlock and tying the team scores at 9-9.

"Eddie Carr (with a headlock) once again," Healey said. "How many times can we possibly say this?"

Roselle Park would record wins at 189-pounds and 215-pounds before Mike Boardman (285) stepped in with a second period pin, keeping Madison close at 21-15.

A 13-3 decision win by Patsy Davis at 112-pounds to make the score 27-19, would be the final victory for the Dodgers though, as Roselle Park went on to win the next five matches walking away with a solid 51-19 victory.

"We knew coming in that we were overmatched and we told the kids to wrestle their best and maybe some magic could happen," Healey said after the match. "I thought our kids wrestled tough. We see (Roselle Park) in the districts so we got to see some good match-ups."

This match ended the dual meet portion of the Dodgers' wrestling season. Up next for the Madison grapplers will be the District Tournament beginning on Friday, Feb. 19 at Millburn High School.