Saturday, December 21, 2019

Naperville Central Shows Grit against Waubonsie Valley


December 20, 2019

NCHS 70 – WV 4

Wrestling under the spotlight at home, Naperville Central defeated Waubonsie Valley by a score of 70-4.  Central won 10 of the 11 contested matches, 7 of which were by fall and took three more wins by forfeit.  Naperville Central improves to 9-1 on the season, 3-1 in the DVC. 

The dual started at 170 pounds were Manny Rivera matched up with highly touted Antonio Torres of WV.  Torres showed off why he is highly regarded, winning 17-5, but Rivera battled throughout the match.  After that, Central never looked back.  Tariq Sikander chalked up a varsity win at 182, scoring a reversal in the final second to ice down a 10-7 decision.  Austin Longmire, 195, scored several early takedowns and held on for a 10-4 decision.

Next up was perhaps the match of the night as two ranked wrestlers squared off at 220 pounds.  Angelo Eklou had the upper hand as he scored two takedowns early.  In the second period, Eklou nearly scored a fall on an inside ankle pick.  Eklou cruised to a 10-2 decision.

From there Naperville showed its muscle by winning by fall in all reminding match-ups.  Carson Enfield was able to lock down a fall in the second period of his match at 285.  Then, after NCHS was awarded two forfeits to Ethan Olson and August Kukis at 106 and 113 respectively, Tommy Porter (120) took to the mat and scored a fall in period two.  Tyler Driessens added a first period fall at 126.  Bryce Cooperkawa (132) scored a quick takedown and used a cradle to finish his opponent in period one.  Elrin Esporlas (138) used a standing cradle to score early in his match and later locked down a pin.  After Ayden Lutes won by forfeit at 145, Ryan Silva (152) joined the fun with a pin too.  Finally, Sean King scored several sets of nearfall points and earned a fall in the third period at 160.

Naperville Central managed to win all three underlevel contests.  The JV1 team won 51-28.  The JV2 team won throughout with a 78-0 victory and the freshman won 45-27.

On Saturday, December 21 the Redhawk JV1 team won three duals at home, capturing wins against Bolingbrook 45-25, Joliet Central 66-12 and Oak Forest 60-12.  Meanwhile the Freshman-Sophomore Team took third place at the Maine South Tournament behind host Maine South and Libertyville.  Tournament champions were Tristen Hall (152), David Pirozhnik (160), and Chase Enfield (195).  Taking a silver was Yiguang Zhu (132).  Coming in third were Larry Stubitsch (106), Gavin Bohan (126), Michael Parker (145), Justin Schroeder (182) and Quinn Hurley (285).

The Redhawk varsity team is off the weekend.  They will be preparing for the highly competitive DeKalb Dual Tournament next Friday and Saturday.