Wrestling: P'burg 'takes' it to Kittatinny for 997

Steady improvement. It's expected to happen with each match in the Phillipsburg wrestling program.

The Stateliners seem to be rounding into form after turning in a pair of impressive performances this week, including a 43-18 victory over Kittatinny in an independent clash on Thursday night in Lopatcong Township.

Phillipsburg is now three wins shy of 1,000.

P'burg (7-1), coming off a 37-13 drubbing of Southern on Tuesday in which it won 11 of 14 bouts, has now reeled off four in a row since a 32-23 loss to North Hunterdon on March 23. That includes back-to-back victories over two ranked teams in the New Jersey Wrestling Writers Association public Top 10, with Southern entering the week at No. 5 and Kittatinny (7-1) at No. 10.

"We've been trying to emphasize to the guys that our P'burg fans don't come to matches and they don't watch on Stateliner Sports -- they don't want to watch a wrestling match, they want to watch guys fight as hard as they can," said coach Dave Post, whose 'Liners are No. 3 in the NJWWA public poll and have won 11 straight in the series with Kittatinny.

"We just emphasized that to [our wrestlers] to be physical in every position you can be. No easy scores -- turn it into as physical a wrestling match as possible."

Kittatinny, which hasn't beaten Phillipsburg since 2010 and is 6-20 all-time in a series dating to 1994, was simply overmatched in the neutral position. Veteran coach John Gill, who recently went over 600 career wins, could not have been happy about the fact his Cougars lost the takedown battle by a 36-6 margin.

In the featured bout between unbeaten junior wrestlers, P'burg state qualifier James Day (8-0) racked up six takedowns in a 12-4 major of Shane Nelson, a 2020 Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex Tournament runner-up, at 120 pounds. 

"That was a match that [Kittatinny] wanted to see and we kind of emphasized that with James, too," Post told Mike Moore of Stateliner Sports. "This is a match that they think is going to be close and they want to see that bout. James wanted to make sure there was no doubt that he was the better wrestler."

Junior Joey Innamorato (8-0) followed with a technical fall win at 126 to close out the match as the 'Liners won the last four bouts and nine total on the night. Eight of those victories resulted in bonus points, including pins by junior Nate Zastowny (170) and senior Gage Horvath (195).

"We looked good on our feet tonight," said Post, now 11-0 against Kittatinny. "We purposely wrestled a little bit more on our feet and opted not to go [on bottom] in certain scenarios. We found with some of our guys that they're so good on their feet that even the 30 seconds that it takes to get an escape sometimes is just too much to sacrifice. We'd rather give up a point and let our guys have more time on their feet to wrestle."

With P'burg holding a 17-9 lead through six bouts after Zastowny's pin, freshman Caleb Rivera gave state qualifier Brycen Mafaro all he could handle in a 5-3 loss at 182. Mafaro, a region runner-up in 2020, converted a takedown with 26 seconds left in the third period to tie and turned Rivera, who led, 2-1, after two periods, with a cradle in the closing second for two decisive back points.

"We looked pretty good," Post said. "We had a couple [potential wins] that we left out there. There's going to come a time where Caleb Rivera starts beating those guys. [Mafaro] is one of the best guys in the state at his weight class and for 5 minutes and 50 seconds, [Rivera] controlled the whole match. It was just one bad scramble. I wasn't really certain that those were back points, but we told Caleb, 'You can't put yourself in that position. You had him on the ropes and one more takedown would have polished off the match. The second [Rivera] realizes he can beat those best guys in the state and he doesn't have to keep it close ... when he turns that corner, he's not going to lose to those guys again."

Zastowny (5-3), a state qualifier last season, has now reeled off four straight wins after a slow start.

"He's figured it out," Post said. "We talked about some things and we figured them out. We had never known in his whole career that he has asthma. Just found out recently that he has an inhaler and he's never brought it to a match before. He's started taking it and ever since then we've seen a different Nate Zastowny. Like a lot of our other guys, they looked a little rusty in the beginning because we kind of take for granted what our schedule does for our kids. He's going to wrestle himself into Nate Zastowny form. If he wrestles like he's been wrestling, he'll be a very dangerous out in the postseason."

Phillipsburg, sitting on 997 wins as a program and 59-16-1 all-time vs. Sussex County teams, will again need to revisit the schedule after High Point was shut down for a second time due to COVID-19 exposure. As a result, the 'Liners now have open dates on consecutive Saturdays starting this weekend as the Hunterdon Central match was scrubbed with the Red Devils on a COVID-19 pause until early next week.

Unless Post finds another opponent in the interim, his team will next be in action at Watchung Hills on Tuesday before a nine-day gap in the schedule until Delaware Valley (away on Thursday, April 15). The only other remaining dates are Mendham (at home on April 20) and Hanover Park (away on April 21).

PHILLIPSBURG 43, KITTATINNY 18

132 -- So. Chris Casale (6-2), K, p. Jr. Sean Stasiulaitis (4-4), 3:51.
138 -- Sr. Jason Tino (6-2), P, md. Fr. Bryce Coesfeld (3-5), 12-2.
145 -- Sr. Logan Maczko (6-1), P, d. Sr. Patrick Franco (6-2), 9-5.
152 -- Jr. Steve Dalling (8-0), K, d. So. Hunter Cleaver (5-3), 11-7.
160 -- Jr. Matt D'Onofrio (7-1), P, md. Sr. Connor Hanna (5-2), 19-8.
170 -- Jr. Nate Zastowny (5-3), P, p. Jr. Jack Merrill (0-8), 1:00.
182 -- Jr. Brycen Mafaro (8-0), K, d. Fr. Caleb Rivera (6-2), 5-3.
195 -- Sr. Gage Horvath (7-1), P, p. Sr. Tyler Sweatt (2-6), 1:59.
220 -- Sr. Jackson Crawn (8-0), K, d. Jr. David Pierson (6-2), 5-1.
285 -- Jr. Ty Eldred (3-2), K, d. Sr. Jordan Kiley (5-3), 2-1.
106 -- Jr. Miguel Lopez (5-3), P, forfeit.
113 -- Fr. Dawson McWilliams (4-4), P, tf. Fr. Dylan Zupkay (1-7), 18-3, 5:18. 
120 -- Jr. James Day (8-0), P, md. Jr. Shane Nelson (7-1), 12-4.
126 -- Jr. Joey Innamorato (8-0), P, tf. Fr. Jacob Savage (5-3), 22-4, 6:00.
Records -- Phillipsburg 7-1; Kittatinny 7-1.
Official -- Chris Rebels.