Bergen Catholic holds off DePaul by Kevin Czerwinski special to The Record
WAYNE – Though the Bergen Catholic wrestling team is continuing to work on making a name for itself nationally, Crusaders coach Dave Bell has stressed to his team the importance of not overlooking matches that take place in its own backyard.
Consider Wednesday night’s matchup at DePaul, another squad with aspirations of making its mark both in the state and nationally. The Spartans are ranked second in The Record’s latest poll and proved to be a considerable test for top-ranked Bergen Catholic. The Crusaders, however, demonstrated that they weren’t about to get caught looking past anyone, earning a hard-fought 38-22 victory.
“There was a lot of emotion and some great individual matches tonight,” said Bergen coach Dave Bell, whose squad will be competing in the Who’s No. 1 Duals this on Sunday in Pennsylvania. “They [DePaul] are a national team as well. They are a good team and they wrestled hard. It was a match they wanted to win and rightfully so.”
DePaul showed that it was thinking upset right from the outset when Luke McFadden nearly stunned Gerard Agnello at 138 pounds. Though Agnello, who placed second in the Beast of the East Tournament, earned a 15-9 victory he was nearly pinned with just over a minute remaining in the bout. McFadden, despite trailing 13-1 at the time, dropped Agnello but couldn’t hold on for the pin.
“It was one of those nights when anything could happen,” Bell said. “He [Agnello] was trying to score from points for us and he tried to force something that wasn’t there and put himself in a bad position.”
The bout set the tone for what would be a grueling evening. Nine of the matches went the distance and none of those were lopsided.
“We were expecting these kind of matches,” Bell said. “We knew tonight would be tough. We needed this now, though, because we don’t have a match on Friday.”
One of the bright spots for DePaul came at heavyweight with the return of Tom Colella, who was wrestling for the first time this season. Colella was nicked up during football season.
“We were forfeiting a lot at heavyweight and giving up six points all season,” DePaul coach Keith Karsen said. “Having him back strengthens us.
“I knew going into tonight, though, that there were going to be four or five toss-up matches. I thought we wrestled tough.”
DePaul’s Brandon Kui (195), who has been battling some back issues, was also a bright spot for the Spartans, pinning Matt Nappi in 1:05.