West Orange High's wrestling team advanced to the North Jersey, Section I Group IV title match last season. The Mountaineers appear performing well enough to get back there this week.
The Mountaineers (9-3) bounced back from a 46-21 Friday night loss to a very good Pequannock team to beat Belleville 47-27 Saturday morning. West Orange, the No. 3 seed in North 1 Group IV, will host to No. 6 Randolph (9-7) Monday night at 7 p.m.
West Orange beat Randolph 40-28 in last year's sectional semifinal before losing to Phillipsburg 48-17 in the sectional final.
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If West Orange beats Randolph it would wrestle at No. 2 seed Morris Knolls Wednesday night in the sectional semifinals.
West Orange won nine bouts in beating Belleville (13-8), hours after winning just four against Pequannock (15-4). West Orange got falls from senior Dallas Sellers (112), senior Dawit Rutty (125), junior Desi Fried (130) and seniors Zachary White (145), George Christian (215) and Emiliano Betancor (285, 14-0, 12 falls, a forfeit and a technical fall). Junior Connor Vanderhoof (140) and senior Pascal Lewis (171) won major decision victories (eight or more points) and junior Nigel Brown (135) won 9-7.
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"The best thing sometimes is when you have a bad match to wrestle the next day," said West Orange coach Steve Zichella. "Our kids came back and were a much different team. We had a good showing and it was important because of Monday."
Fried was one of the Mountaineers who took advantage of the quick turnaround.
Fried, beaten 8-0 by West Essex unbeaten senior Anthony Perrotti (25-0) Jan. 28 in the Essex County Tourmament final, was pinned with just three seconds left in Friday night's bout with Pequannock star junior R.J. DeGeorge (27-2).
Fried, who has a 22-4 record, bounced back by pinning Belleville freshman Mohammed Khafagy in 49 seconds. It was his 14th fall of the season.
"He bounced back," said Zichella of Fried. "It was supposed to be a good match with Des and DeGeorge, it just didn't prove to be."
