The procession of five Westfield wrestlers followed a dull path. First to the scorer’s table. Then to the center of the mat, where the referee would raise the wrestler’s arm in mock celebration. Then, frustration evident, off the mat.
A chorus of boos greeted each Roselle Park forfeit.
The Panthers forfeited five matches in a row (144, 150, 157, 165, 175 lbs) in Westfield’s 57–9 win. The boisterous Westfield crowd, stuffed into the stands, vented its anger at what it undoubtedly perceived as Roselle Park’s cowardly behavior.
When the Panthers finally sent a wrestler onto the mat, to face Luke Vaccaro (190), the stands rattled as the gym prepared for a spectacle.
And, oh, it got one.
“That was clearly the match of the night,” head coach Glen Kurz said. Vaccaro ended up winning, 4-0. At one point, he lifted his opponent and threw him to the ground, like something you’d see in a sterilized version of WWE.
The match arrived after Roselle Park declined to face Westfield’s Michael Murphy (175).
“You’re running from one thing, you’re running from Murphy, you run into somebody pretty freaking good,” Kurz said. “So I thought that was great. I love the way Vaccaro shoved it in their face that they ran from Murphy.”
So dominant is Murphy that opponents often forfeit against him, the better to avoid crippling defeats and humiliation. “It’s something I’ve gotten used to,” Murphy said, “but it still bums me out every time.”
“I work very hard,” he added. “And it’s just frustrating when I can’t show that work to everyone else.”
Kurz was baffled by Roselle Park’s decision not to wrestle against Aidan Harper at 144, noting that the Panthers had a good wrestler in that weight class. Westfield expected Roselle Park to forfeit three matches, but not five.
Still, the Westfield wrestlers who did get to compete put on a show.
Matthew Hunsinger (120) pinned his opponent in the first bout. Dylan Sontz (126) fought to a 3-0 win in the intense match that followed. By the end, Sontz and his opponent looked like they were wading through molasses, the fatigue catching up, the physicality exacting its toll. But Sontz, despite a bleeding-induced injury timeout, gutted out the win.
At 132, the Roselle Park wrestler made a new friend: the mat. Brandon Ribiero grounded his opponent into the ground. The blue Westfield mat massaged the Roselle Park wrestler’s nose, grabbed at his knees. Ribiero won, 5-1.
Vaccaro said Westfield’s superior conditioning was a factor in the overall dominance. “Every day in the room we’re working really hard,” he said. “We wake up at 6 a.m. sometimes to come practice here. I know they’re not working as hard as us. Our conditioning really pushed them, and they didn’t know how to push back.” Kurz concurred.
The first of Westfield’s three individual defeats arrived at 138. Ethan Composto, rocking a snazzy pair of Mickey Mouse socks, tussled with his opponent but lost, 5-2. “I thought Ethan Composto wrestled really well,” Kurz said. “I thought he pushed the pace.”
Later, at 215, came the meet’s most dramatic bout. Sergio Cabrera required two separate injury timeouts as he clutched his face in pain. “He was experiencing physical pain,” Kurz said. “His problem was he showed it.”
But the bout entered the third period tied, 3-3. Cabrera took the Roselle Park wrestler to his stomach and hung on for dear life as his opponent bucked beneath him. Cabrera’s opponent strained. The escape came slowly, like an impending storm. With 1.49 seconds left, the Roselle Park wrestler surged to his feet and took the points and the victory.
The Blue Devils also lost at 285, on a takedown in overtime, in a match with multiple crowd-pleasing moments. Westfield’s Cary Pritchett forced his opponent into an awkward handstand at one point before sending him to the floor. At another juncture, the hulking Roselle Park wrestler shunted Pritchett across the floor like a massive rock before a bulldozer’s teeth.
The final two bouts ended more auspiciously for Westfield. Daniel Berardi (106) and Max Rotter (113) pinned their opponents, Rotter doing so with an acrobatic roll that brought the crowd to its feet and ended the night on a rousing note.
The meet, Westfield’s senior night, brought a lively environment that pleased the wrestlers. “It’s awesome,” Vaccaro said. “It’s great when we have the crowd with us.”
In the end, though, it’s all a bit academic at this stage of the season. “Just a stepping stone,” Kurz said. “Roselle Park had some good kids. It was a measuring stick to see where we are. But it’s pretty meaningless. It’s just something to build on.”
Westfield returns to the mat Saturday morning with a tournament at Bloomfield High School. The Blue Devils will look to maintain the electrifying positivity that has suffused their first two home meets.
By Michael Liebermann
