River Dell Wrestling Falls in State Semi-Finals

NORTH CALDWELL - River Dell’s drive to get its first state sectional title in four years came to an abrupt ending on Wednesday in falling to West Essex in the Group 2 North 1 state semi-finals.

The young fourth-seeded Golden Hawks just could not get going on the road against the top-seeded Knights as River Dell dropped a 46-18 decision and were ousted in the state tournament.

River Dell head coach Mike Tota said that it came down to experience on West Essex, who is the defending state sectional champions.

“We're a young team with a lot of freshman and sophomores," said Tota. "They are the defending champions and won the close matches. Our kids fought them hard."

You could say that the 2011 version of River Dell wrestling team might have over achieved considering the number of underclassmen in the lineup.

"I'm not sure how we would do with all the freshmen and sophomores in the lineup," said Tota about how his team would fare in 2010-11 at the beginning of the season. "I think we wrestled well at times (Wednesday night). I just think West Essex was the better team tonight."

With a tri-meet this weekend, the Golden Hawks’ record stood at 17-3 and will be ready to go for the District 8 individual state meet on Feb. 18 and 19 at home. Unfortunately for River Dell on Wednesday they could not build off the momentum from the 40-24 victory over Mahwah on Monday at home.

The Golden Hawks found themselves down 22-0 against West Essex before River Dell finally picked up some team points as Zach Deckler hung on at 145 pounds to nip West Essex’s Mark Dipsey, 9-8, to put a dent into the Knights lead at 22-3.

But the Golden Hawks could not parlay the win as River Dell lost the next three bouts until Ricky Rizzo collected a 4-0 victory over West Essex’s John Herbach at 189 pounds.

For River Dell, freshman Danny Lynch continued to be the top River Dell wrestler as he dispatched West Essex’s Chris Caputo with a pin at 1:26 at 103. The other Golden Hawks pin came at 215 where Lenny Smith dropped Knights’ Grant McGuire at 4:36.

For West Essex they showed that they were not going to look by River Dell on Wednesday to the anticipated matchup with Jefferson. The Knights jumped out to a 35-3 lead that gave them an encore battle with the Jefferson Falcons on Friday night for the Group 2 North 1 title that will be in North Caldwell.  Last season in Jefferson, West Essex defeated the Falcons, 39-29, for the Group 2 North 1 state championship.

West Essex 46 River Dell 18

119, 3-0, Mike Marotti (WE) d. Brendan Campbell, 9-3

125, 9-0, Jimmy Ciampi (WE) p. Cenzo Cariddi, 2:52

130, 15-0, Anthony Perrotti (WE) p. John McLaughlin, 1:24

135, 19-0, Anthony Pompei (WE) m.d. John Arancio, 13-4

140, 22-0, James Avraamides (WE) d. Tyler Kallensee, 7-1

145, 22-3, Zach Deckler (RD) d. Mark Dipsey, 9-8

152, 26-3, Frank Marotti (WE) m.d. Nick Baranello, River Dell, 12-4

160, 29-3, Joe Velardi (WE) d. Andrew Pohl, 10-3

171, 35-3, Paul Cafone (WE) p. Kevin Samuel, 0:24

189, 35-6, Ricky Rizzo (RD) d. John Herbach, 4-0

Note: One point deducted from West Essex

215, 34-12, Lenny Smith (RD) p. Grant McGuire, 4:36

285, 40-12, Dominic Valeriani (WE) p. Brian Coyman, 0:11

103, 40-18, Danny Lynch (RD) p. Chris Caputo, 1:26

112, 46-18, Carlo Zazzara (WE) p. D. J. Tirelli, 5:20