River Dell Wrestlers Defeat Mahwah for the Second Time This Season

ORADELL – Earlier this season, the River Dell Hawks and the Mahwah Thunderbirds took to the mat in Mahwah and wrestled a close hard-fought match that the Hawks won by a single point, 32-31.

Although River Dell won the first meeting they knew that it was going to be very difficult to beat the powerful Thunderbirds for a second time.

On Monday night, the two teams met again with a lot more on the line. This battle was for the right to advance to the semi final of the Group 2 state sectional team tournament.

River Dell won the right to move on by defeating Mahwah by a score of 40-24.  It was a match that was much closer than the final score indicated.

“As a team, we wrestled awesome,” exclaimed River Dell senior, captain Rocco Rizzo. “From one-sixty up they have great wrestlers.  Tonight, we showed how tough we can wrestle.”

River Dell moved out to an early 28-0 lead.  Brendan Campbell out-scored Nick Knight 3-0 to get things started at 119 lbs for the Hawks.

After taking a forfeit at 125, freshman Cenzo Cariddi notched a major decision for the Hawks by defeating Zach Spira 16-4.

John Arancio stepped out to the mat to hook up with Mahwah’s Edwin Diaz. As the wrestlers charged each other, heads came together and Arancio fell to the mat.

After a pause for injury time, he collected himself and got back to his feet, determined to tough it out. Before his match was over, Arancio came up big and pinned his opponent.

River Dell head coach Mike Tota explained, “Arancio was tougher than that kid [Diaz] for six minutes. I don’t know if he was better, but he was tougher.”

It seemed to be the match that gave the Hawks a whole lot of confidence.

River Dell went on to take a 28-0 lead before Mahwah’s Ryan Sblendorio took on Kevin Samuel. Sblendorio, who is undefeated this season, used his lightning fast quickness to get a takedown and pin to get the Thunderbirds on the scoreboard.

Mahwah looked as if they were ready to turn things around as their upper weights, the power of their lineup, were ready to take to the mat.

The T-Bird’s Ryan Walker outscored Rocco Rizzo 9-3 at 171lbs. Luke Pragdat followed by taking a 10-5 decision over Lenny Smith. But, what was perhaps the key to River Dell’s victory was that both Rizzo and Smith managed to keep from being pinned, depriving Mahwah of much-needed bonus points.

“I knew that I had to stay off my back,” said Rizzo. “I knew that the team needed me and you gotta wrestle for the team.”

Mahwah’s Dave Heitman pinned Chris Everett at 215 and heavyweight Cody Mann took a forfeit and suddenly the score was 28-24.

Danny Lynch stepped up for the Hawks and at a minute and fifteen seconds of his match, the 103-pound freshman pinned Mahwah’s Erik Molina to secure the victory for River Dell.

At the end of the match, in his usual very business-like manner, Coach Tota stated, “It’s about winning the matches we can win and eliminating the bonus points for their real good kids. I’m proud of the way our kids wrestled.”

The Hawks will take some of that same strategy with them on Wednesday when the travel to North Caldwell to take on the top-seeded West Essex Knights at 7pm in the semi final of the state sectional tournament.

119:  Branden Campbell (RD) d. Nick Knight, 3-0

125:  John McLaughlin (RD) forfeit

130:   Cenzo Cariddi (RD) m.d. Zach Spira, 16-4

135:  John Arancio (RD) p. Edwin Diaz, 5:43

140:  Tyler Kallensee (RD) d. Jake Knight, 14-7

 145:  Zach Deckler (RD) d. Mike Karlewicz, 5-4

 152:  Nick Baranello (RD) d. Justin Jenco, 9-2

 160:  Ryan Splendorio (M) p. Kevin Samuel,  :54

 171:  Ryan Walker (M) d. Rocco Rizzo, 9-3

 189:  Luke Pragdat (M) d. Lenny Smith, 10-5

 215:  Dave Heitman (M) p. Chris Everett, 1:11

 285:  Cody Mann (M) forfeit

 103:  Danny Lynch (RD) p. Erik Molina, 1:15

 112:  D.J. Tirelli (RD) forfeit

 River Dell – 40   Mahwah – 24