Wrestling: 'Liners top Southern; Vikes get 600th W

Senior Josh Ramos came up with another difference-making performance, while senior Brian Meyer enjoyed redemption in leading Phillipsburg to an impressive 29-25 win over Southern on Saturday night in an independent clash between state-ranked teams at Phillipsburg High School.

Phillipsburg (10-2), which came in ranked No. 8 in the New Jersey Writers Association Top 20, capped a 4-0 week with a dominating effort -- winning eight bouts -- for its 950th win overall in sending No. 12 Southern back to the Shore area with its second loss.

"What a week," said Stateliners coach Dave Post, whose team handily won the takedown battle and scored key points in the closing seconds of several bouts in winning a match that wasn't as close as the final score indicates. "You always get tough wrestling out of Southern. We were able to match them blow for blow."

Cullen Day (113) and Travis Jones (120) started things off with back-to-back majors and junior Cody Harrison scored a tough 10-8 decision over Southern senior Matt Barnett -- on a takedown with 31 seconds left in sudden-victory OT -- to give P'burg an 11-10 lead through five bouts.

Junior Jayson Zinsmeister, who had missed time recently while battling the flu bug, followed with a key 9-3 win at 145. That set the stage for Meyer, who turned in one of his best performances to date in a 5-1 victory over Nicholas O'Connell in a matchup between two of the top 152-pounders in the state.

Meyer (22-2), a third-place finisher at 145 last season, converted two takedowns and dominated on the mat in avenging a 7-5 loss in sudden-victory OT to O'Connell in last year's dual meet. Meyer, a Lehigh recruit, is now 114-34 overall, recently surpassing Post (111-22) and Matt Lane (113-34) for eighth-place on the school's all-time wins list.

"We let two takedowns slip away [in last year's loss]," Post told Mike Moore of Stateliner Sports Network during the postmatch recap. "This was nearly the same match. The one huge difference for Brian is horsepower this year. The re-attacks were where we couldn't score last year."

Ramos, whose 8-3 win over Barnett at 138 spurred P'burg on to a 36-23 win at Southern in 2017, came through again with a 10-7 decision over Dan Gorman, who came in with 15 wins.

"Ramos is a clutch wrestler," Post said.

Southern, which still owns a 6-5 edge in the all-time series, won the flip and controlled the matchups at 138 and 152. But as they've done all season, the Rams played it straight up. The curious thing is veteran coach John Stout opted to bump Nick Pepe, who weighed in at 138, up against Zinsmeister, who is a solid 145. O'Connell did beat Meyer a year ago, but you'd have to favor him against Ramos.

P'burg pulled away with Lance Wissing's technical fall win at 170 and Austin Roth's major at 182. Wissing got two stall points in the final seconds of the third period, while Roth secured a takedown at the third-period buzzer for the extra team point.

PHILLIPSBURG 29, SOUTHERN 25

113 -- Sr. Cullen Day (19-7), P, md. So. Jayson Scerbo (13-6), 12-0.
120 -- Jr. Travis Jones (24-4), P, md. Sr. Owen Kretschmer (13-10), 14-2.
126 -- Jr. Sebastian Delligati (19-5), S, md. Jr. Brenden Fox (1-10), 10-2.
132 -- So. Robert Woodcock (15-2), S, p. Jr. Kyle Tino (13-7), 1:55.
138 -- Jr. Cody Harrison (20-2), P, d. Sr. Matthew Barnett (8-2), 10-8 SV.
145 -- Jr. Jayson Zinsmeister (13-9), P, d. Jr. Nick Pepe (16-5), 9-3.
152 -- Sr. Brian Meyer (22-2), P, d. Jr. Nicholas O'Connell (16-1), 5-1.
160 -- Sr. Josh Ramos (15-6), P, d. Sr. Dan Gorman (15-7), 10-7.
170 -- Sr. Lance Wissing (25-3), P, tf. Jr. Haven Tatarek (5-13), 17-2, 5:59.
182 -- Jr. Austin Roth (12-8), P, md. So. Ben LoParo (5-2), 11-3.
195 -- Sr. Vin Miele (19-5), S, d. Sr. Shamyr Brodders (9-12), 3-1.
220 -- So. JT Cornelius (15-7), S, d. Fr. Gage Horvath (0-2), 3-0.
285 -- Sr. Matt Mackanic (19-2), S, d. Sr. Patrick Sharpe (14-12), 1-0.
106 -- Fr. Matt Brielmeier (15-10), S, forfeit.
Records -- Southern 14-2; Phillipsburg 10-2.
Officials -- Frank Leitner and Lou Ricciardi.

Voorhees reaches program milestone

As expected, Voorhees swept a quad at Belvidere High School on Saturday, including a 48-22 win over Livingston for the program's 600th victory.

The Vikes celebrate their 600th win. (Voorhees wrestling)

The Vikings (16-7), now 602-265-5 in 43 seasons overall, also posted much-closer victories over Mahwah (42-33) and Belvidere (39-29), as coach Eric Hall's team capped a 4-1 week.

Senior Scott Fernandes (24-3 at 195) also went 3-0 on Saturday to become the 11th Voorhees wrestler to notch 100-career wins. It was previously reported that Fernandes (102-35) got his 99th last weekend, but the school made a clerical error.

"To me this program is part of my life, part of my family," said Hall, who notched 120 wins as a wrestler for the Vikings and 152 as their head coach, while his father, Bob, was the program's first head coach (332-99-5 in 23 seasons).

"I've been a part of many of these milestones and that's special to me."

VOORHEES 48, LIVINGSTON 22

220 -- Lewis Fernandes, V, p. Ryan Valese, :41.
285 -- Sam Huff, V, p. Nick Boffa, 1:41.
106 -- Sean Neary, L, d. Josh Rich, 10-7.
113 -- Colby Koshinski, V, p. Michael Petrillo, 5:01.
120 -- Aidan Taylor, V, p. Drew DiGangi, 5:59.
126 -- Anthony Petrillo, L, md. Hunter Rinehart, 12-1.
132 -- Mathew Nichter, L, forfeit.
138 -- Jason Wittlinger, L, d. Joe Swiston, 4-2.
145 -- Garrett Loescher, V, p. Aiden Kessler, :38.
152 -- Jacob Baytoff, V, tf. Charles Lee, 17-2, 5:57.
160 -- Brad Kalinchak, V, p. David Ferreira, 1:14.
170 -- Matt Brandner, V, md. Michael Wong, 8-0.
182 -- Kenneth Newman, L, p. Charlie Eberle, 4:44.
195 -- Scott Fernandes, V, d. Austin Paris, 4-0.