Bombers make statement with District 20 title
Host of local grapplers advance in Region V action
BY WARREN RAPPLEYEA
Staff Writer

MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Sayreville’s Eric Tsang battles for control with Old Bridge’s Brian Suozzo during their 125-pound title bout at Saturday’s District 20 Tournament at South Brunswick.

After winning its first District 20 championship, the Sayreville High School wrestling team has five competitors who will be heading to Hunterdon Central on Friday for the Region 5 competition.

Eric Tsang (125 pounds), Mark Poore (140), Tom Danielson (145), Mike Velardi (171) and Robert Borzerelli (Hwt) are the five. Velardi, Poore and Tsang just won their second successive District 20 titles, and Danielson took his second District crown in three years. Borzerelli took third place in his weight class and has become a Cinderella story. Overall, he is 11-15, but he has been wrestling particularly well of late, which explains his 2-1 win over Manville’s Mark Manderski in the first round of the Region V tourney on Tuesday.

Coach John Denuto notes that it’s the first time in team history the Bombers have had four, two-time district champs.

It’s been an interesting campaign for the Bombers, who finished with a team record 17 victories against seven defeats. Sayreville finished second in the Greater Middlesex Conference (GMC) White Division behind South Plainfield. Along the way the Bombers scored triumphs over Woodbridge, Edison and JFK. And each time Sayreville faced adversity, the team managed to recover.

After a tough loss to Perth Amboy, the Bombers reeled off six straight wins. Denuto’s team also rebounded from a disappointing showing at the Greater Middlesex Conference tourney, and the Bombers lost a tough match to J.P. Stevens in the regular season finale.

“Adversity certainly makes you stronger, but I knew it would be really difficult to bounce back from the Stevens’ loss,” Denuto said. “That was very disappointing and it came just five days before District 20, but our guys showed what they’re made of. They put their heads down and got the job done.”

The Bombers came with their game faces on. Denuto ran them through a sharp, fast-paced warm-up an hour before anyone else, which helped set the tone.

Sayreville went out and earned 178.5 points to edge a pesky Old Bridge team, which scored 170 and at one point battled back to trail the Bombers by a single point. The Knights had won the District 20 championship in four of the last five years. South Brunswick finished a distant third with 132 points. Velardi was named the tourney’s Outstanding Wrestler.

“When you win you want to take it from the top team and Old Bridge really is a great team,” Denuto said.

“We really wanted to beat them. It was getting tough when they battled back because things could have gone either way. I’m really proud of our guys. They showed a lot of character and their results are truly the result of hard work.”

Sayreville has six grapplers with 20 or more wins, led by Danielson, who is 32-2. The 145-pounder now has 91 career wins — tops in team history. Poore, a junior, is not far behind at 29-5, with 71 career wins; Velardi, meanwhile, is 28-2 with 81 career triumphs. Tsang, another junior, owns a 27-5 mark and has 68 career successes.

George Kosanovich (130) finished up at 23-10, and took third at 130 pounds at District 20. He was eliminated by Bridgewater’s Adam Friedman, 4-0, on Tuesday in the first round of the Region V tournament.

Herbert Nieves (215) was 22-11 with 17 pins to lead the team in the category. Sophomore Mike DeLuco (152) compiled a fine 19-10 log and freshman Ramon Santiago (119) posted 18 victories.

Two other freshmen, Nick Ronan (103) and Dan Bergfeldt (112), showed plenty of promise, winning 11 and seven matches, respectively. Sophomore Ricky Petrocelli (135) had eight wins to his credit.

“I told the guys that the easy part is chasing what you want, the hard part is maintaining it,” Denuto said.

“At the beginning of the season we had our shirts that said, ‘the next level.’ Well, we’re where we wanted to be and now we want to go to even a higher level. It will be a big challenge, but our guys are up for it.”

The Region V matchups for tomorrow night are set.

Tsang got the fourth seed in the 125 bracket and will face fifth-seeded Adam Kull of Hillsborough. Poore is also a four seed, and will take on fifth-seeded Mike Guenther, of Delaware Valley, in their 140-pound bout.

Danielsen is the second seed at 145, and drew seventh-seeded Chris Cavanaugh, of Notre Dame, while Velardi got the top seed at 171, and will take on J.F. Kennedy’s Isaias Rodriguez tomorrow night. That leaves Borzerielli, the eighth seed at heavyweight, who drew top-seeded Matt Galadyk of JFK.

Knights lead parade of local

grapplers in Region V action

The Old Bridge Knights may not have won another District 20 title, but they are certainly still a major factor in the state individual tournament, sending eight grapplers on to tomorrow night’s Region V quarterfinals.

The Knights’ District 20 effort was led by a pair of first-place finishers — Steve Fallon at 119 and Travis Gerdon at 215 Fallon beat Monroe’s Alfred Rotundo with a pin at the 5:00 mark of their final, while Gerdon topped South Brunswick’s Dave Amrhein in their final with a 12-7 overtime decision.

The Knights also got second-place finishes from Matt Valentini, who was pinned by North Brunswick’s Billy Belfi in 1:23 in the 112-pound final; 125-pounder Brian Suozzo, a 5-3 loser to Tsang in the finals; Andrew Goldman, who dropped the 140-pound final to Sayreville’s Poore, 6-3; and Chris Suozzo, who was major-decisioned (14-4) by Sayreville’s Danielsen in the 145 final.

Also advancing via third-place finishes were 103-pounder Andrew Schaeffer, 160-pounder Eddie Ebewo and 171-pounder Chris Orzechowski.

As district champs, both Fallon and Gerdon automatically advanced to tomorrow nights Region V quarters, where Fallon is the top seed at 119 and will face Bound Brook’s Gabriel Gleason, and Gerdon is the third seed at 215 and will take on Delaware Valley’s Brad Gelegonya, the sixth seed.

The rest of the Knights had to fight for their survival on Tuesday. Valentino advanced with a quick pin in his match to advance to tomorrow night’s quarterfinals, where he’ll face top-seeded Dan Kelly, of Delaware Valley. Suozzo also advanced with a 9-6 win over North Hunterdon’s Chris Kane, and will take on Bernards’ Greg Hart, the sixth seed, tomorrow night.

Goldman beat Hunterdon Central’s Matt Sanquini, 5-4, in his match Tuesday night, and will take on top seed Rob Bolomey tomorrow night, while Suozzo pinned Bernard’s’ Matt McCrea in 3:38 to advance on Tuesday. Tomorrow night, he’ll face fifth-seeded Dave Breines in the quarterfinals.

Orzechowski was the final Old Bridge grappler to advance on Tuesday, as he beat Somerville’s Brandon Holderbaum with a pin at the 1:46 mark. He will face fifth-seeded Tom Frantzen, of Princeton, tomorrow night.

Unfortunately, Schaffer did not advance for the Knights, losing his match, 18-2, to JFK’s Tom Hogan.

The South River Rams finished with a surprising fourth-place finish in District 20, led by Adam Mongelli’s title at 103. Mongelli, who beat Monroe’s Brendan Hodel, 3-1 in overtime, in the final, is the fifth seed in Region V and will take on Carteret’s Don Smith tomorrow night.

Dan Fiumecaldo also advanced for the Rams with second-place finish at 130 pounds, and before being knocked out of Region V contention by Bernards’ Anthony Palma, 10-2, on Tuesday. Teammate Alex Renner was also eliminated on Tuesday (via pinfall by Bishop Ahr’s Jon Meyer at 3:18) after taking second at 152 pounds in District 20.

David Mathias (125) and Justin McCutcheon (145) also advanced out of the districts with third-place finishes, but were eliminated on Tuesday night.

The East Brunswick Bears had one individual winner in District 20 — Kevin Busund at 130, who beat Fiumecaldo, 13-5, in their final bout. His win earned him the seventh seed in Region V and a bout with J.P. Stevens Hamilton Cook tomorrow night.

Also advancing out of District 20 for the Bears were Sergio Garcia (second at 160), Todd Maryott (third at 135) and Gary Marosy (third at 152). Of the three, only Garcia advanced out of Tuesday’s action after scoring a 15-6 win over Voorhees’ Brian Erdek. Maryott dropped a 9-1 decision to Voorhees’ Jake Piasecki, while Marosy was pinned by Voorhees’ Kyle Honickel in 1:23.

Next up for Garcia, the seventh seed in Region V, is second-seeded J.R. Nettuno of Hunterdon Central.

Monroe advanced four grapplers to the regional tournament — Hodel (second at 103 in District 20), Rotundo (second at 119), Justin Lupo (second at 275) and Jake Nale (third at 215). Hodel went on to advance out of Tuesday’s action with a pin of Hunterdon Central’s Evan Brewer in 1:49, as did Rotundo, who pinned Woodbridge’s Will Buchan in 5:12.

They’ll be joined by Lupo, who pinned Ridge’s Ryan Monaghan in 45 seconds. The only Falcon not to advance was Nale, who dropped a 6-5 decision to Perth Amboy’s Erik O’Buck.

Hodel is the eighth seed at 103 and will take on top seed Anthony Lebbad of Hopewell Valley tomorrow night, while Rotundo, the sixth seed, gets Lawrence’s Matt Friedeborn, the third seed. Lupo is the sixth seed at heavyweight and will take on third-seeded Sean Plaisted, of North Hunterdon.

Spotswood’s Drew MacKay beat Lupo in the 275-pound District final with a pin at 2:23, and as a result got the fifth seed in Region V, and a matchup with fourth-seeded Ben Grant, of Notre Dame. His teammate, Matt Salge, advanced to Tuesday’s action via a third-place at 112 in District 20, but was eliminated by Ridge’s Clemment Bommier, 9-2.

— Doug McKenzie contributed to this story