Ramapo Bounces Back to Beat Pompton Lakes 19-8 (14-4)

All three Ramapo squads — epee, sabre and foil — delivered in their bouts against Pompton Lakes Thursday.

Sabre swept the first three bouts in round one and Ramapo foilists surprised everyone by sweeping their first three bouts in an upset. However, in an even bigger upset, Ramapo epeeists went 2-1, only losing the bout against Schumacher. With an 8-1 lead after the first round Ramapo confidently fenced in the second round with a much more aggressive game than in their last match and clinched the meet 14-4 in the last bout of the round, which Sam Judd fenced superbly.

Ramapo sabreists fencing without their Captain, Charles Copti, were undaunted as they produced a 6-0 record in the first two rounds and a 2-1 record in the third round when subs took over to deliver an 8-1 overall  score for the squad. Starters, Squad Captain, senior Josh Chang, sophomore Alex Gorloff, and freshman Adam Carcione were undefeated with 2-0 records. In the third round, seniors Taylor Valdez and Eric Yoon produced two more victories.

Green Raider epeeists upset their favored Pompton Lakes opponents by going 5-4 as junior Sam Judd went 2-0, junior Scott Zellers and sophomore Matt Martone went 1-0, with sophomore Michael Daly producing the last victory. A head to head bout between Ramapo’s top epeeist, Sam Judd, and Pompton Lakes’ Cooper Schumacher would have been very exciting to see, but just before their bout was to begin, Pompton Lakes inexplicably subbed out Schumacher even though he had fenced only one bout in the meet. Judd and Schumacher will definitely meet in the District Championships in two weeks

Ramapo foilists more than held their own against Pompton Lakes with a 6-3 record. Junior Tanner Frank, whose game has gotten stronger and stronger as he has adopted an aggressive style where he is almost always on the offense, produced 2-0 record. Junior Tyler Clarke  and sophomore Daniel J. Kim each added a victory, as did third round substitutes, sophomore Nick Carpino and Daniel H. Kim.

Ramapo's next meet is next meet is at 4:15 p.m., next Thursday, Jan. 25, away against Northern Highlands.

Editor's note: Paul Apostol is the coach of the boys fencing team at Ramapo High School.