Thursday, January 8, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Pat Taranto scored a second period pin in the final match of the night to cap a classic high school wrestling meet, a 41-36, win at Bergenfield on Wednesday night.

BERGENFIELD -- Endings like the one that happened on Wednesday night in the NBIL season opener for the Ramapo and Bergenfield wrestling teams used to happen a lot more often. Before the weight class at which dual meets would start were chosen randomly, the lighter guys would start things off and the not-so-light guys would finish them. So it was old school when it just so happened that the biggest guys in the gym at Bergenfield High School wound up on the matt with the outcome hanging in the balance while the crowd went nuts.

Ramapo sophomore Pat Taranto had wrestled only two previous varsity matches and was going to give up close to 60 pounds to his opponent, AJ Martin, in the heavyweight bout and as the team score went back and forth through the first 12 matches, Taranto had fair warning that the outcome of his match would make the difference between a team win and a team loss.

“I was standing by the bench watching everything happen and it was just one of those crazy things. They’d pin, we’d pin and it just kept going back and forth,” said Taranto. “Everyone was coming over telling me that it was going to come down to me and to do whatever it takes to win.”

Bergenfield's Richie Torres got out of from under a 2-point third period deficit to score a pin with two seconds remaining at 171.

What it took was keeping the bout in the neutral position throughout the first period and staying getting out from under Martin to score an escape early in the second. Despite the side differential, Taranto’s advantage was in quickness and stamina. He used the first to get a takedown and the second to gradually improve his position before finishing off a pin at 3:04

The six team points gave Ramapo, which trailed by a point heading into Taranto’s match, a 41-36 victory.

“I took him down and I got him on his back and I knew that I had to keep him there,” said Taranto. “I knew that if he got up I could lose so I was going to do whatever I could just to finish the match as soon as I could.“

There were so many twists and turns from start to finish and the fans were into it the whole way as the lead changed hands 11 times and the team score was tied on two other occasions.

“What a great gym to wrestle in. The Bergenfield fans were awesome. They got the house rocking here and when [Richie] Torres stepped up for them and get a win at [1]71, it didn’t look like it was going to turn out so good for us,” said Ramapo head coach Drew Gibbs. “But Pat stepped up and came through big time. It was his third varsity match, he was outweighed by 60 pounds and she showed great toughness. He had a good game plan and he went out and executed it.”

Greg Madormo got a second period pin at 135 to give Ramapo an 18-12 lead.

Taranto’s win got the most attention because it came last, but if the match had ended with any other weight class, the ending would have been just as dramatic. Bergenfield’s Joe DeFuria opened the night with a 3-0 win at 103 pounds before Ramapo took its first lead after Alex Scheinert’s pin six seconds before the end of the second period at 112.

Bergenfield then won two straight matches at 119 and 125 behind Jeffrey Cardona’s 6-4 decision and Chris Rankin’s first period pin. Ramapo answered with two wins of its own as Joe Nacco (130 pounds) and Greg Madormo (135) each recorded second period pins to give the Green Raiders an 18-12 lead after six bouts.

“Usually I know who my opponent is going to be before I go out there, but tonight I had no idea. Coach told me that they were probably going to bump up one of their JV kids to wrestle me and I knew I had to six points for us,” said Madormo, a senior captain. “Watching the rest of the matches was almost like de ja vue. Every year against Bergenfield we are in it and they come back to beat us at the end. Last year when we faced them we were undefeated at the time and they upset us by a couple of points because I lost a close match to Rankin in the closing seconds, so this win feels really good.”

Victor Kipiani won in 17 seconds at 160 to give Bergenfield a 29-24 lead.

After Madormo left the matt, the team’s traded wins the rest of the way with all but the 145-pound bout being decided by pin. The lone exception, Brian Gibb’s technical decision for Ramapo at 145, provided the one point difference that the Raiders trailed by heading into the final match.

Gibbs’ win came after Bergenfield’s Wayne Watson had tied the team score at 18 with his first round pin at 140 and the Bears retook the lead at 24-23 when Wilson Tapia pinned in 34 seconds at 152.

Victor Kipiani needed just 17 seconds to put Ramapo back in front with his pin at 160 leading up to the best contest of the night at 171. Ramapo’s Chris D’Amico held a 5-3 lead and was still up by a point at 7-6 when Bergenfield’s Torres scored a reversal with 50 seconds left in the match. Torres let D’Amico up with 32 seconds left, giving up a point for a last ditch effort to get a takedown that could force overtime.

He did better than that, however, when he got the takedown, three back points and eventually a pin with two seconds left in the match to give Bergenfield a 30-29 lead with three matches left to wrestle.

Ramapo's Brian Gibbs posted a technical decision 145.

But the momentum was short-lived as Dave Empel put Ramapo right back in front, 35-30, with his pin in 31 seconds at 289 before Kadeem Goodal-Reid wrestled it right back for Bergenfield with a pin at 215 that took just about the entire first period to secure. Goodal-Reid notched the fall with just .01 seconds remaining in the opening period to give Bergenfield its last lead of the night heading into the heavyweight battle.

Even though is team came up five points short, Bergenfield head coach Kevin Manning could see through the loss to just how entertaining a night it was, especially for a league opener.

“It was fun to watch, it was good for the sport and it was good to have all of these fans out here to see it. It was good for both teams,” said Manning. “I thought that 171 could be the turning point for us. That was a great match and that is Richie [Torres’] style. He always seems to come back late to win by points or pin and he give me a heart attack. We have a lot of kids that have never wrestled before or never wrestled varsity before and as a team I couldn’t have asked for more, maybe just one more win.”

Ramapo scorekeepers Gen Cohen and Janelle Biagini contributed to this report

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