Nail Biter as East Wins Wrestling Playoff Match to Advance

It’s the position every athlete dreams of being in.

It’s being up to bat in a tie game with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.

It’s coming in to attempt a 45-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter with the game on the line.

It’s being having your hands on the ball late in the fourth quarter of the NBA Finals.

In this case, it was taking the mat for the final match of your team’s playoff match with the score tied and a trip to Southern Regional on the line.

That was the situation 195-pound wrestler Armando Leonor walked into Monday night at Absegami High School.

Fifth-seeded Toms River and No. 4 Absegami were tied going into the final match of the night, and Leonor’s three-point victory gave Toms River East the 30-27 victory in the first round of the NJSIAA South Jersey Group IV playoffs.

Toms River East (9-15) will visit top-seeded Southern Regional in the semifinals on Wednesday night, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m.

Absegami (9-15) has one more match against Holy Spirit this Saturday before turning its focus to the district tournament, which begins Feb. 17.

On Monday night, the focus was on winning as a team.

“I didn’t want to let my team down,” said Leonor, who, as a junior, is wrestling varsity for the first time. “I’ve worked hard and I wanted it to pay off.”

Leonor went in to the match in a defensive mindset, and after scoring the first two points in the first period, focused on not allowing his opponent the chance to catch him off guard by mounting a comeback or scoring a pinfall.

“I was looking for his mistakes, trying to catch him,” Leonor said. “Once I had the lead, I wanted to play it safe, play defense.”

While Leonor built a lead in his match he didn’t relinquish, the same almost couldn’t be said for Toms River East as a whole.

Toms River East’s Ronald Waters won the opening match over Absegami’s Will Sanz, 2-1 in triple overtime. Sanz scored the first point in the second period, but Waters tied it at 1-1 in the beginning of the third, and the two 120-pounders would go on to a triple-overtime battle, won by Waters.

This win helped jump-start Toms River East to a 15-0 lead through four bouts, including a 6-1 win by Fernando Perez at 285 pounds; a first-period pinfall win for 103-pounder Jacob Maher; and a one-point win for 113-pounder Anthony Curtis.

However, beginning at 120 pounds, Absegami battled back, beginning with Brandon Goldberg’s 6-1 win over Vince Rotello.

At 126, Mike Jiampetti took an early lead on Mike Veneziano and held on for an 11-8 victory. John Willette then scored a technical fall over Jeremiah Weber at 132 to cut the lead to 15-12, and Frank Meloy downed Antonio Morales at 138 to tie the score at 15-15.

“That’s our strong area,” Absegami coach Shawn Scannell said. “They’re seasoned wrestlers and we always expect to gain some ground back. They matched up well with us in the upper weights, which doesn’t usually happen.”

The teams then traded pinfall victories, with Toms River East’s Richard Lewis pinning Absegami’s Ibrahim Diomande at 142 to take a 21-15 lead, only for Absegami’s Nate Ross to score a pinfall over Vincent Avallone at 152 to tie the match at 21-21.

Wade Moore’s victory over Alvin Mears at 160 gave Toms River East a three-point edge, but 170-pounder Alex Gong’s pinfall over Vito Shriver gave the Braves their only lead of the match at 27-24.

Donald Jacob’s win at 182 tied the match at 27-27, setting the stage for Leonor’s heroics.

“This is the first match we’ve been in all year that’s been close like this,” said Leonor, who at 20-7 is having a better first season than he anticipated. “It all came down to me and I was not going to lose.”