Sunday, January 12, 2020

Naperville Central Finishes Dual Season 22-4


January 11, 2020

NCHS 69 – South Elgin 9
NCHS 50 – Downers Grove North 20

The Naperville Central Redhawk wrestling team finishes the dual meet portion of their regular season with a final record of 22-4.  The Hawks added a final two dual meet wins at Downers Grove North against the host school and South Elgin.  Metamora was scheduled to compete, but cancelled due to poor weather downstate. 

Central faced off against South Elgin first and won 11 of 12 matches.  Central forfeited 106.  Sean King nearly defeated highly ranked Lopez at 160 pounds, losing in the ultimate tie breaker (3OT) by a score of 1-0.  In the other eleven matches, the Redhawks recorded 9 fall, 1 technical fall, and 1 major decision, received 1 win by forfeit.  Naperville Central did not give up a takedown in the entire dual.

Downers Grove North proved to be a more formidable opponent.  Ryan Silva started the contest with a major decision 14-3 at 152.  Sean King got back on the winning track with a fall at 160.  Shane Roth earned a major at 170.  Tariq Sikander’s attempt at a third period comeback fell short and he lost a 4-8 decision at 182.  Austin Longmire lost by fall in the 195 pound weight class.  Suddenly, the team score was 14-9 in favor of the Hawks.  Senior Angelo Eklou, 220, surrendered a takedown in the third period, but his two escapes pushed the match to overtime, tied at 2-2.  An unusual stalling call in the overtime frame gave Eklou the win 3-2.  Carson Enfield was pinned in the third period of his match.  Central was forced to forfeit the 106 pound weight class, allowing DGN to take a 17-21 lead in the team score.

Upstart sophomore Tommy Porter, 113, faced off against Roberto Lara in perhaps the marquee match of the night with two ranked opponents getting after each other.  Lara stared the scoring with a takedown in the first period.  Porter countered by scoring a two-point reversal in the second period to tie the score.  Lara was penalized twice due to stalling on the bottom position and Porter took a 4-2 lead into the third period.  Starting on their feet, Porter scored on a go-behind takedown to take a 6-2 lead.  Lara was penalized two more times for stalling to push the final score to 9-2.

The Redhawks did not look back.  Tyler Driessens accepted a forfeit at 120, Jones and Esporlas both recorded falls at 126 and 132 respectively.  Bryce Cooperkawa grabbed a forfeit at 138 and Ayden Lutes scored 10 match points before winning by fall late in the second period.  The final team score was 50-20.

The NCHS JV1 team took 4th place at the competitive Bolingbrook JV tournament.  Manny Rivera fell just short of a championship, losing in 2OT in the gold medal match.  Patrick Geiger took 3rd place.

The NCHS JV2 team took 1st and 4th place at the 52nd Annual NCHS JV2 Tournament (fielding two teams).
Taking 1st place: Gavin Bohan (120), Yiguang Zhu (132), Chris Ramirez (138), Sean Bakos (152)
Taking 2nd place: Dominic Hautzinger (113), Joe Flessner (132), Brayden Halverson (145), Michael Salvo (160), Connor McHugh (170)
Taking 3rd place: Ethan Pytlak (152), Nick Ball (160), Justin Schroeder (182), Chase Enfield (195)

Next up the NCHS Varsity team will compete at the Marty Williams Tournament at Mahomet-Seymour High School on Saturday, January 18 while the Redhawks will field a Freshman-Sophomore team to compete at the Oswego Team Tournament on the same date.