With the Governor Livingston student section at full volume and the pressure building with every match, WHS wrestling worked to stay within reach as the match began to tilt in GL’s favor. Late adjustments in the lineup sparked momentum for Westfield, but forfeits and a large sum of pins left the Blue Devils far behind in points, falling 42-36 to the Highlanders.
Westfield, now 3-3, came into the match off a 41-32 win against Bloomfield. The Blue Devils went into the match with positive mindsets and a well-thought-out strategy. Senior quad-captain Daniel Berardi, who won his match by decision, said, “We had a game plan from the start and knew what we wanted to do. Our goal was to go in there, get them tired and finish it in the third period.”
“We thought we had a lineup that would win this duel. We had a plan B, which we had to resort to. We had to change things up at 106 and 113,” said head coach Glen Kurz. “We originally had Daniel at 106 and Parker at 113. We had a gamble switching them; the gamble paid off, but it was too late because other people didn’t do their jobs beforehand.”
While this game plan worked for some of the wrestlers, five of the Blue Devils lost their matches to GL, all by pin. They gave up 12 additional points due to holes in the lineup, resulting in forfeits. “We had good individual efforts, but it takes a team,” added Kurz. “When you’re giving up 12 points in forfeits, you can’t afford getting pinned, and we got pinned a lot.” This win for GL ended their losing streak of 0-7, officially making their record 1-7.
Despite the result, there were some positives throughout the match for the Blue Devils. Junior Anthony Cabrera, senior Pravit Bhatla and Daniel Berardi won their matches by decision, while senior quad-captain Luke Sluberski, senior Nik Speronza, sophomore Parker Stanek and sophomore Max Berardi won their matches by pin.
Kurz added that a key factor in the Blue Devils’ matches was whether the wrestlers believed in themselves or not. “My mindset was just to wrestle my best match,” said Speronza. “GL is one of our biggest rivals of the season. I knew I had to go in and get six points for the team, and I went out and did that.”
Overall, the Blue Devils in the middle weight classes were the wrestlers who struggled in their matches. Senior quad-captain Josh Semler along with seniors Sam Beilis, Lukas Surgent and Duncan Callow lost their matches by pin, while junior Matthew Blessington also fell to a pin by GL.
“We went down early, and that obviously wasn’t the plan,” said Daniel Berardi. “We moved some people around to see if we could make things happen, and it just didn’t go our way.”
Kurz believes that whether or not the team uses this loss as a lesson moving forward in the season is up to them. “There were some technical things, but it was a toughness thing. We can’t really teach that, and we just have to be tougher. Either we will or we won’t.
The Blue Devils look to add another win to their record as they travel to Elizabeth to wrestle at 6 p.m. on Jan. 14.
