Chicagoland Wrestling

Redhawks roll past West Aurora 56-9 in home opener

By Curt Herron

Naperville Central coach Rob Porter was looking forward to seeing his squad perform just like they did on Friday.

And the Redhawks picked a good night to put it all together since it was both their home opener and initial DuPage Valley Conference dual meet.

That spelled bad news for West Aurora which only managed to win a pair of matches as Central rolled to an impressive 56-9 victory in Naperville.

The Redhawks (5-1) recorded five pins, a pair of major decisions and four other decisions to go along with a forfeit win.

But two of the falls came in matches where Redhawk wrestlers were in jeopardy of getting pinned and had to overcome early 5-0 deficits.

Both major decisions were clinched on late scores while Central also captured a pair of one-point decisions and rallied for a pin in the finale.

Central received falls from John Graeber (135), Andy Kovalsky (140), Matt Schefke (215), Jon Williamson (112) and Nick Santos (119).

Adam Gebner (152) and Steve Bus (189) won major decisions while Cam Needham (145) and Joe Savina (160) both claimed one-point victories.

Josh Tardy (130) and James Mitchell (285) also picked up decisions for the Redhawks while Mitch Lee (103) added a win by forfeit.

The win provided some revenge for Central, which lost to the Blackhawks in last year's dual and finished a point behind them in the DVC meet.

West Aurora captured one of its wins in the opening match at 125 when Kirk Cherep prevented a major decision in a 16-9 defeat to Nate Zinzer.

But the Redhawks responded to that setback by rattling off half a dozen straight wins to grab a 25-3 advantage midway through the meet.

Tardy trailed 2-1 heading into the final period but used a five-point move with 43 seconds left to claim a 10-4 win over Miguel Venecia.

Then at 135, Graeber faced an early 5-0 deficit to O.J. Quintanilla but moved ahead 8-7 after two periods before winning with a fall in 5:18.

That victory improved Graeber to 6-0 and right after that, Kovalsky also moved to 6-0 after he recorded a fall in 2:50 over Greg Jacquez.

At 145, Byren Swanson's takedown with 37 seconds forced a 6-6 tie but Needham got an escape with six seconds left to post a 7-6 win.

Gebner improved to 3-0 on the young season after getting an escape with 11 seconds left to capture a 13-5 victory over Nolan Meehan.

Things were back-and-forth in the match at 160 but Savina managed to hang on and claim an 8-7 triumph over Brandon Warren.

The Blackhawks picked up their final win at 171 when Aaron Hett recorded a fall in 42 seconds over Colin Guttosch.

Central answered that defeat by winning the final six matches, however, with half of those coming courtesy of pins.

Bus got that streak started when he got a takedown with 13 seconds remaining to capture an 11-3 win over Austin Beebe.

Then at 215, Schefke fell into an early 5-0 hole but battled back and picked up a fall in 1:48 over John Taylor.

Mitchell followed with a 4-0 triumph over Mike Ortiz at heavyweight before Lee made it 44-9 following a forfeit.

In the match at 112, Williamson needed only 52 seconds in order to record a fall over Jon Bohler.

And then in the finale, Santos trailed 3-0 with a period to go but got a pin in 4:37 against Marcus Serrano.

As a result of their victories, Tardy, Savina, Williamson and Santos all improved to 5-1 on the season.

Central has won five straight duals since falling to Neuqua Valley and hope to keep that streak going at today's West Aurora Mega Duals.