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Jax over PBoro

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Gloucester Times
By Bill Evans billevans@sjnewsco.com

JACKSON TWP. - Through two weights, Paulsboro High School's non-league wrestling match against Jackson on Saturday went according to plan.

Ellis Hester scored a 3-2 decision over Rob Wood to start the match at 189 and Alex Silvestro (215) followed with a first-period fall for a 9-0 Red Raider lead.

But on the last 12 weights not much went Paulsboro's way, as Jackson won 10 of the remaining bouts to score a surprisingly decisive 39-17 victory.

It was the fourth straight year the Jaguars defeated the Red Raiders, joining Absegami (2000-2003) as the only teams to accomplish the feat.

"I'm disappointed, because I thought we'd give them a better match," said Paulsboro coach Paul Morina. "We didn't even score 20 points, which is real depressing. But they're tough, they're solid all the way through. They're going to make a run at being the No. 1 team in the state."

The match started to turn at heavyweight, where Paulsboro's region champion, Demitrius Hester, could only manage a 7-3 decision over Kevin Solomen. Derick Russel then used a third-period reversal to edge Red Raider freshman Eric Dunnet, 2-1, and take a 103 bout the Red Raiders were counting on.

Kyle Kinchen notched a fall at 112 to knot the score, and Rob Swan (119) and Corey Biscaha (125) earned decisions in toss-up matches against Eddie Wurtenberger and Niko Lopez, respectively.

"Everybody thinks the Russel match was the big one, and it was, but Solomen only giving up three to Hester was just as big," Jackson coach Scott Goodale said. "We won two or three matches we didn't expect to win, but that's what you have to do. You have to knock off a couple of their horses."

For the match to turn out favorably for Paulsboro, it needed at least two of the three toss-ups on the lower weights and bonus points out of heavyweight. The 189 starting point seemed to give Paulsboro a
springboard to build a lead, but after the quick start it didn't turn out that way.

"We started where we wanted to, and I wanted to get us off on the right foot," said Ellis Hester. "I figured I could give us a jump start through heavyweight and around to 103, and the rest of the lineup
would pick it up.

"I was real shocked. I thought we would put up a better fight, but we can still accomplish most of our goals. We didn't have much to lose."

Biscaha's victory essentially decided the outcome, but Jackson continued to impress the rest of the way, losing only to state runner-up Bryan Tracy (135), who scored a technical fall over Joe Feaster.

Scott Winston (152) decisioned Jeff Hamilton, 9-3, and Ken Carney (160) won by a 14-3 major decision over Billy Sierocinski as Jackson knocked off a pair of state qualifiers. The Jaguars then finished with a
flourish as Dan Hopkins (171) rallied from a 5-3 third-period deficit to defeat Mike Cucinotta, 8-5.

"We needed to win 103, 119 and 125," said Morina. "That was the match right there. Hopefully we'll learn from it and look forward. I think we'll bounce back."

The last three matches between the teams came down to the final two weights, so the margin of victory was shocking, especially considering the Red Raiders returned a solid nucleus. But the Jaguars wore Paulsboro down with their depth, and handed the Red Raiders one of their most decisive losses in the last few decades.

"They have kids that put a lot of time into the offseason, and we need more kids to do that," Morina said. "It's good for us to wrestle this competition, but when you wrestle these big schools you're going to take it on the chin occasionally."

The Red Raiders (36th) and Jackson (11th) were both nationally-ranked coming into the match. Paulsboro faces another of the best teams in the country when it meets Caesar Rodney (Del.) next Saturday night.