Cranford Wrestlers Roll Past New Providence

On seniors night, a tradition at Cranford for many years, it was only fitting that the Cranford High School varsity wrestling team would be led by their elder statesmen.

Leave it to heavyweight Joe Brady to bring the crowd to its collective feet with a thrilling come-from-behind victory against rival Zach Troutman, who was the only opponent to defeat Brady the entire season. His 5-3 victory helped propel the Cougars to a convincing 53-9 win over New Providence, who came in with a 9-2 duel meet record.

"I wrestled him in the county finals and I knew I wrestled like garbage," said Brady. "I was thinking about it at practice and during other matches, what can I do against him to win. I just put it all together. I just went out there and got the crowd pumped, they were behind me the whole time. It was awesome. Everyone was behind me and drove me through the match."

"We knew that it was going to be a good match," said Cranford head coach Darren Torsone. "Troutman beat him last time. This was the rematch. It was going to be for the top seed and Joe really looked forward to wrestling him again. He was excited all week about this match, so he went out, went after him and got him this time."

Brady, who improved to 21-1 on the season, was behind 1-0 early, but he had a game plan.

"I knew I was in better shape then him," said Brady. "I knew that in the county finals. He tried to stall out, so I knew I had a stalling call against him, a warning, I just kept going at him, relentless, and it finally worked out, he finally broke, snapped him down, got my two points, and got a stalling point, so I was up. Then I did it again, snapped him down again to make it 5-3 and I just kept working."

"His strategy last time didn't work, so we changed it a little bit to go after him a more aggressively," said Torsone. "He did that later in the match when he tired him out a little bit."

Other key matchups came at 189 and 215, which Cranford knew would be pivotal if they were going to beat the Pioneers. Along with the heavyweight division, Torsone considered these swing matches. Errol Petgrave edged Ben Carroll 6-5, while Julian Campo won by fall over Andrew Tullo.

"This is the best I've seen them wrestle this year," Torsone said. "We came to wrestle tonight. This was their last match at home, it was senior night, the crowd was here and they really looked forward to wrestling in front of them."

Among the other winners was senior Connor Londregan, who bumped up a weight class to defeat Hans Nessen 4-2 in another key bout.

"In the first match, we were getting a feel for each other, I took a couple of shots and he wasn't shooting too much, so I figured I had to do all the work," said Londregan. "I got one takedown the first period. During the second period we were just butting heads, we were both going at it. It was pretty close. Then in the third period I knew I had to take him down because it was tied 2-2. With about ten seconds left, I took a shot, he stepped over, and I did one of their favorite moves to get my two and time expired."

Londregan has been a consistent performer all season, despite the fact he's had to wrestle in different weight classes to help the team, which he doesn't mind at all.

"I'm think I'm doing pretty well, going up and down a couple of weight classes, helping out the team," Londregan said. "I have to use my speed against a bigger kid and that's worked for me. I've had some success at the upper weight classes as well as my weight class and as long as it doesn't get in my head and work on my feet the way I always do, I can hang in there, don't let him overpower me. That's basically what I think when I have to bump up a weight class. Coach always tells me, so it's not a surprise and that definitely helps."

Cranford improved to 16-4 on the season in duel meets, but missed out on the state tournament by just one point. Governor Livingston nailed down the seventh and final spot thanks to a win over Cranford earlier this winter.

"They took our spot at number seven," said Brady. "We were supposed to be number seven if we beat them, they barely beat us. It's tight, but that's how it goes. You know, it's tough, missing the states by one point, one point."

"I think we're doing great," said Londregan. "And I think we could have improved on our record on two occasions. We probably could be 17-3, but 15-5 is definitely a good mark. We have a few more matches to improve on our record. I think as a team we're wrestling very well, we have some individual standouts which always help when we need them. I think we're going to improve on our record from here on out."

The Cougars have added a meet against Morristown, set for Monday at Martin gymnasium. But last night, on their night, the seniors had a match to remember.

All results:

Cranford High School: 53

New Providence High School: 9

103: Castro, Diego (Cranford High School)  DEC Lazaro, Adriel(New Providence

High School)  12-7

112: Terrezza, Tim (New Providence High School)  DEC Henry, Ian(Cranford High

School)  9-4

119: Giaccio, Joe (Cranford High School)  For (New Providence High School)  -

125: Buontempo, Brian (Cranford High School)  FALL Smith, Dan(New Providence

High School) :41

130: Markovitch, Kyle (Cranford High School)  TF Sharpe, Steven(New Providence

High School) 5:52

135: Pellino, Carmine (Cranford High School)  FALL Sidoli, Vincent(New

Providence High School) 1:13

140: DiGiovanni, Matt (Cranford High School)  FALL Laplanche, Harry(New

Providence High School) 4:35

145: Knight, Eric (Cranford High School)  DEC Umana, Dan(New Providence High

School)  6-2

152: Londregan, Connor (Cranford High School)  DEC Dassen, Hans(New Providence

High School)  4-2

160: Christiano, JP (Cranford High School)  DEC Sidoli, Max(New Providence High

School)  5-0

171: D'Amico, Jon (New Providence High School)  FALL Keim, Chris(Cranford High

School)  3:08

189: Petgrave, Errol (Cranford High School)  DEC Carroll, Ben(New Providence

High School)  6-5

215: Campo, Julian (Cranford High School)  FALL Tullo, Andrew(New Providence

High School) 3:50

285: Brady, Joe (Cranford High School)  DEC Troutman, Zach(New Providence High

School)  5-3