Westwood flying high after upset of North Bergen by JJ Conrad of The Record
Paul Castellini expected big things.
With just one senior lost to graduation from last year’s 16-win squad, the ninth-year Westwood wrestling coach saw the potential this year’s group had.
Wednesday night, North Jersey saw a glimpse of that, too.
The Cardinals upset perennial contender North Bergen, 33-29, on the road to improve to 2-0 in a program that is seeking its first state tournament berth “in quite some time,” Castellini said.
“Any time you can compete against and win against a Group 5 school that’s been in the finals the last two years, it’s all just positive steps in the right directions,” said Castellini, whose team took 10th place overall at last week’s BCCA George Jockish Holiday Tournament
Westwood received an early, but key victory at 1:06 in the second bout of the night when Ty Pfeufer defeated North Bergen’s Ken Ramos, 5-3, in sudden victory. Castellini added, “Even though it was early, looking back at how things played out, it was one of the big swing matches.”
Westwood’s Julian Robles, coming off a fifth-place finish at the BCCA Holiday, followed with a pin at 1:13 and Trent Furman, who took third at the BCCA, gave the Cardinals a good showing in the lower weights with a 15-0 technical fall at 1:20. While Westwood lost the next three bouts at 1:26, 1:32 and 1:38, Castellini called them “good losses” against three of North Bergen’s top grapplers, including state hopeful Yousef Salem at 1:26. The Bruins only accumulated one total bonus point in those three bouts.
“Coming in we definitely thought we had a chance against these guys,” Castellini said. “The dominoes had to fall the right way and they did.”
Back-to-back pins from Westwood’s Aidan Fernandez at 170, who took seventh at 160 at the BCCA, and Brandon Brown at 182 sealed the victory later in the night for the Cardinals.
“It just gives these guys confidence to see they can wrestle with, and beat, teams like that,” Castellini said. “We knew what we had coming back and we beefed up the schedule and challenged ourselves with matches like these. We’ve kind of been the odd team out the last couple years for states.”
Four Westwood starters may be strangers to the postseason in wrestling, but Brown, Sean McKay (160), Benny Dahdah (195) and Gary Siok (220) were members of a Cardinals football program that reached the North 1, Group 2 final at MetLife Stadium.
There’s no doubt, Castellini said, they help bring in a winning mentality inside the Cardinals’ wrestling room.
“What those guys do is tough at the end of the [football] season,” Castellini said. “The overlap is split between these kids trying to win a state title one day and the next completely going into wrestling with a totally different mindset. Them coming back into the room definitely infused a lot more people and more life into the team.”
Castellini believes the last time Westwood qualified for the team state tournament was in 2008-09. With the state adding two teams to each respective bracket this year, in addition to the early season promise the Cardinals are showing, the opportunity for Westwood to make some history is there this winter.
“This is certainly one of the most balanced teams we’ve had here since I’ve been here,” Castellini said “There’s so much experience from last year, a lot of guys committing themselves in the off-season. All that extra time gives you an edge in a sport like wrestling.”