West Orange High School unbeaten senior 285-pounder Emiliano Betancor passed his toughest test of the season Monday night, and the Mountaineers carried the momentum and finished off Randolph.
West Orange, the third seed in the North Jersey, Section I Group IV playoffs, beat sixth-seed Randolph 34-21 and will now wrestle No. 2-seed Morris Knolls Wednesday night in the sectional semifinals. The Mountaineers will take a 10-3 record with them.
West Orange beat Randolph for the third straight year. The Mountaineers lost to Randolph in the sectional final two years ago and beat the Rams two years ago in the semifinal round before losing to Phillipsburg in the sectional final.
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West Orange won nine bouts in the rubber match with Betancor beating Peter Wolmart 3-0. Betancor is now 15-0 with 12 falls, a technical fall, a forfeit and the decision win over Wolmart. Wolmart is 23-2.
"Emiliano had a tough kid, but he managed a really good match," said Mountaineer head coach Steve Zichella. "It was probably the toughest match of the year. Wolmart is a good, defensive wrestler. But I’m happy with the way he wrestled. He didn’t put himself in a bad position."
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Zichella was very pleased junior 119-pounder Mike Dellacqua , who beat freshman Jake Federico 14-6. Dellacqua, 5-9, was behind 6-1 before scoring 13 unanswered points.
"I was really pleased, the kids really battled," Zichella said.
Seniors had a big role in the victory. Seniors Dallas Sellers (112 pounds, 12-9) Dawitt Rutty (125 pounds, 18-7), Zach White (145 pounds, 17-7) and Matthew Dunovant (160 pounds, 12-9) all won decision victories. Senior 171-pounder Pascal Louis (22-6) won by major decision and 215 pounder George Christian (17-7) won by fall. Junior 130-pounder Des Fried, now 23-4 on the year, won by technical fall.
"Des looked great," Zichella said.
Now the Mountaineers prepare for Morris Knolls, who are 12-5 .
"They are good and have some top ranked kids," Zichella said. "There are going to be handful of tossup matchups and it will come down to who pulls off the tossups. It will be similar to the match we had with Randolph."
Morris Knolls is led by unbeaten junior and Morris County Tournament 103-pound champ Jan Rosenberg (26-0), junior 130-pounder Steve McKowen (23-4), senior 189-pounder Lucas Homeijer (20-5) and junior 215-pounder Kyle Smith (20-6).
