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WRESTLING: WALL 31, LONG BRANCH 30

Wilson's major decision at 119 secures win

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 01/8/06

WALL — With 43 seconds remaining in his bout at 119, Wall's Ryan Wilson turned to his coach, Jason Nase, and saw the sign.

"Cut him," the coach said. Wilson listened and let Long Branch's Carlos Veidma go. The escape point meant that Wilson now led by seven points, not enough for the major decision he would need if the Knights were to win the early season Class B North showdown against the Green Wave.

"I might have been able to ride him out," Wilson said. "But I believe in what my coach tells me."

Sure enough, with two seconds remaining in the bout, Wilson was awarded the takedown he needed, giving him a 12-3 victory and giving Wall (3-0, 2-0) a 31-30 triumph.

"I knew I had to win for us to win," Wilson said. "I was going after him."

It wasn't easy. Like most of the Wall wrestlers, Wilson was up a weight class, caused by two teammates being out due to illness.

"We had to push up everywhere," Nase said. "It's not as easy as it sounds, especially against a team as strong as Long Branch."

The Green Wave (3-1, 2-1) took advantage of the weight shift early when 130-pounder Jon Robertson pinned in the second bout of the match, giving Long Branch a 6-3 lead.

Sean Sims' pin at 145 got the Wave off to a four-bout streak that Wall ended with Dan Savastano's pin at 189.

Then came Long Branch's John Jasio, who was battling Tyler Richards in the early going at 215 before making a great move with 26 seconds left to get a pin.

At that point, it was no secret that the heavyweight bout would be a determining factor.

Heavyweights Drew Doyle of Wall and Long Branch's Darius Williams had spent the holiday season winning tournaments.

The match was even heading into the final overtime period. Doyle, who rode out Williams in the second period, was on top for the final overtime because he lost a flip. With 12 seconds left in the 30-second period, he threw in a leg and put Williams on his back.

"I could hear everyone screaming, my mother (Elaine), my teammates, the fans from both sides. Once I saw the ref start to count I knew it was over."

Dan George, the Long Branch coach, agreed that the bout was a classic.

"Hey, we didn't come here to win the match. We came here to wrestle as hard as we could for six minutes in every bout. We got that from the kids."

Even in the last bout, when Veidma battled Wilson.

The major gave Wall the one-point victory. Without it, the match would have been tied at 30. But it appeared that Wall would have won on criteria, using the seventh tiebreaker, which is most back points.

"You get excited watching stuff like that," Nase said. "It's why you come to wrestling matches — for the 31-30 matches.

"But to tell you the truth, it was better when I wrestled. There was only one bout a night (to worry about). As a coach, you go through that 14 times."