Madison Wrestlers Escape Bound Brook

A televised match on MSG Varsity between the Madison High School wrestling team and Bound Brook High School lived up to the billing as a late victory by 189-pounder Ed Carr secured a hard fought 38-28 victory for the Dodgers.

"Eddie Carr was a huge surprise," Madison head coach Steve Healey said. "Eddie Carr's headlock ... one more time. We'll take it."

The match started with Madison using Jack Anzul at 215-pounds. Normally, Anzul would be at either 171-pounds or 189-pounds but Healey said, "we thought we had a better chance with Anzul to win that match or keep it close. Just on styles, we decided to (go with Anzul)."

Well, the coach was right as Anzul, who was losing 2-0 in the second period, caught Frank Gianotti in a headlock, securing the pin and getting Madison six points.

Up next was arguably the match of the night as Madison heavyweight Mike Boardman took on Ken Taffur in what ended up being a double-overtime battle. Boardman was able to escape in the second overtime period, giving Madison a quick 9-0 lead.

This is when things got a little rocky for Dodgers grapplers.

John Costa (103) lost by technical fall before a Patsy Davis decision victory made the score 12-6 in favor of Madison.

Then, three straight losses at 119-pounds, 125-pound and 130-pounds gave Bound Brook a 17-12 advantage.

After Eamon Epstein (135) won a hard fought 2-1 decision, Bound Brooks Ricky Ash answered with a first period pin at 140-pounds, making the score 23-15 in favor of Bound Brook.

Then the reliable seniors of Madison took over.

At 145-pounds Ryan Colwell did his best to avoid recording a technical fall–knowing that Madison needed six points from a pin, not five from a TF. Colwell eventually got Madison the six, recording a third period pin.

Christian Mazzocchi (152) didn't have as much difficulty as it only took him 57 seconds to put his opponent, Sebastian Mercado, to his back and record the pin. The fall gave Madison a 27-23 lead.

Anthony Costa (160) seemed to have his opponent pinned a number of times, but the official disagreed and instead of six Costa got five, walking away with a second period technical fall.

That's when Ed Carr came into a match in which he seemed to be outmatched but nonetheless trialing 7-4 in the third period, caught his opponent Kyle Doerr in a headlock, sealing the hard-fought victory for the Dodgers.

"A couple of the matches that I had us winning, we didn't win," Healey said. "For a while, the marginal kids from Bound Brook were beating our marginal kids and I thought that was going to be the difference because our good kids won and their good kids won."

"We hit lightning at the right time," Healey added. "I just hope we can keep (the winning) going into states."

Madison looks to keep the winning going as it heads to a quad match at Cedar Grove High School on Saturday morning.