Under the lights in the Westfield gymnasium, the stands were overflowing with rowdy spectators, filling the air with electricity and creating an environment for the Blue Devils to hopefully dominate. Juniors Dylan Sontz, Jack McDermott, Ben Diziki and sophomore Danny Berardi all had stellar performances for the Blue Devils, ending their matches early due to pins. Unfortunately, these standout performances would not be enough to push Westfield ahead of St. Thomas Aquinas during the 49-24 loss.
Following the previous week’s 68-3 loss to Cranford, the Blue Devils had rallied to come out with four consecutive wins over two meets, helping their record to improve to 10-7. St. Thomas Aquinas, however, held a slightly better record of 11-6. After their matchup, Westfield falls to 10-8 and St. Thomas improves to 12-6.
In the 165lb matchup, junior Ben Diziki had a dominant performance, winning his match by a pin in the second round. “I go into every match going for the pin and going for the six points. I always go in with a lot of confidence and try to be the best for my team.” He achieved this goal, but other Blue Devils could not rise to the challenge.
Despite taking the loss, head coach Glen Kurz “felt that we wrestled with some pretty good intensity today. I liked our effort, which at the end of the day is all you can really ask for. I think we can be a little more aggressive and a little more offensive and on our feet. We need to do the things we focus on in practice a little bit crisper.”
Senior captain Max Rotter, who recently won the Union County tournament at the 120 pound weight class elaborated on this point, saying, “I feel like we’ve been competing a lot better as of recently, we kind of started off the season a bit slow, but we’ve picked it up in terms of effort. I think it was a pretty good performance today despite the result.”
Rotter lost his match 4-9, but it was a close matchup, and he knows what he needs to do for his next bout. “Individually I think I need to work on my mindset. I came into this match knowing that this kid was pretty good but I didn’t know what to expect, but I wish I came into the match telling myself I was going to win, I need to come into all matches like that,” he commented.
Even with a final result, other Blue Devils had solid matches throughout the night. The four Westfield pins were the only victories, however all the wrestlers put up a gritty fight, and did not make it easy for the Trojans to take home this victory.
The Blue Devils will compete again this Friday at 7pm at home against Howell High School looking to bounce back with a win.
