Pascack Valley wins first sectional title by Sean Farrell of The Record
SPARTA – Tom Gallione said their day would come.
Pascack Valley made it a night to remember.
Decades of close calls and broken dreams can now be forgotten in Hillsdale and replaced by the booming cheers of a traveling student section that went seven rows deep. The Indians can finally call themselves sectional champions after getting an impressive 50-18 win over top-seeded Sparta on Friday night for their first North 1, Group 3 championship.
“Their legacy is that they’re learning that hard work pays off,” said Gallione, in his 13th year as head coach. “That’s what we preached two years ago. It may not be instant payoff or instant gratification with a win that day or that year. But it will build and in a few years, that paid off. That’s how they should be remembered. It’s a great lesson for the younger guys.”
Pascack Valley has a great wrestling tradition with well over 800 wins and dozens of league and district titles displayed in its gym. The state tournament had been its kryptonite with no championship appearances under Gallione before this year.
The Indians wasted no time in building a lead on Friday with three pins in the first four rounds. The night began with Casey Lewis getting a victory and pointing to a crowd chanting “That’s 100” to honor his milestone win.
“I don’t think it could have gone better than it did tonight,” said Lewis, who wrestled at 195. “This was the perfect ending to the state sectional season and a way to cap off with a great senior moment.”
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Pascack Valley also got a win from its new wrestler, Sean Krumbine-Bresnak. The Indians were forfeiting at 106 to start the year so Gallione sent his team into the hallway in December to find someone for that spot.
Sparta tried to take advantage of his inexperience by moving its starter up a weight and sending out a more unproven wrestler at 106. But Krumbine-Bresnak pinned his opponent in 44 seconds, making the Indians’ loss at the next weight a moot point.
“These guys are really a team,” Gallione said. “In a day and age where people are worried about themselves, these guys don’t care who gets the win. They just want the win. If they don’t do it and the next guy up steps up and gets the win, they’re happy. They’re truly a team and the camaraderie they have and the way they get along makes them successful, and it shows in a tight match.”
Tyler Pizzi and Robbie Natelli followed it up with hard-fought victories in the team’s school record 22nd win of the season. Pascack Valley also made history earlier this season with its first league championship since 2005 and first county group title in nearly three decades.
“It’s a year of firsts,” junior Matt Beyer said. “It’s cool that we got to get another one of them. We’re all in tune. We’re all close with each other and we wrestle with each other in the offseason. That’s what it is, all of us coming together and training hard together.”
Chants of “I believe that we will win” broke out during Tommy Chiellini’s match, what turned out to be the clincher for Pascack Valley. Two green-clad fans even lifted Natelli over a burgeoning crowd to present the championship trophy for everyone to see.
Finally, the wait is over for Pascack Valley.
“We’ve all been wrestling together since we were little kids,” Lewis said. “Having that chemistry and having that work ethic through all the years has built us into this great team.”