Eagles Agonizingly Short In Group II Wrestling Semifinal

Just before the start of the NJSIAA Group II semifinal between West Deptford and Buena high schools, Chiefs fans chanted the name “Eric Hensel.”

After the match was decided, those chants continued.

Hensel scored a 10-4 decision over West Deptford’s Frank Willerton to give Buena a dramatic 28-27 decision and end the Eagles' quest to defend their sectional title.

West Deptford had won five straight bouts to turn a 25-9 deficit into a 27-25 advantage, but Hensel–who at 23-2 is one of the premiere wrestlers in his weight class–left the Eagles tasting the agony of a nail-biting defeat. Buena advances to Friday’s South Jersey final against No. 1 Delsea, who topped No. 4 Collingswood, 34-33.

“I knew it was going to be close either way,” West Deptford head coach John Craig said. “It didn’t go totally unexpected for me. Most of the matches I expected us to win, we won, and the matches I expected to be close, we lost.

"Hats off to Buena; they wrestled a good match.”

The Eagles could have avoided the match coming down to the final bout if they hadn’t dug themselves such an big hole. Buena won five of the first six matches, including one by third period pin, one in overtime and two by a point. Had any of those results been different, the Eagles could have left Wednesday night with a much happier feeling.

“It just hurts to see we didn’t win,” said Rory Bonner, who gave the Eagles a 27-25 lead with a 6-3 decision over Sergio Cortez. “People got pinned who shouldn’t have and we should have gotten a lot of pins and we did not.”

“The close bouts went their way in a couple of spots,” added Craig. “You can’t give up pins in spots where I didn’t think we would give up six points, and obviously it came back to bite us in a 28-27 match.

“It was exciting, I will give it that.”

With his team trailing 25-9, Drew Spector started the Eagles’ comeback with a 3-0 decision at 140.

“I was happy with my result, but you always have to look for more,” said Spector.

Dan Eckley followed with a 4-2 decision at 145 and James Shields recorded a pin a 152 to bring West Deptford within 25-21. Sean and Rory Bonner each followed with decisions to pull the Eagles ahead, but Rory’s win was of little consolation to him when Hensel brought an excruciating finale to the match.

“I just knew I had to pin (Cortez) and I didn’t do what I had to do,” Rory Bonner said. “I didn’t do my job out there. I mean, it felt good to win but I didn't like not pinning.”

West Deptford will look to move past Wednesday’s defeat with a couple of days of practice before it wraps up the team portion of the schedule with a tri-meet on Saturday against Monmouth and Malboro.

“This is a loss that stings a lot,” Craig said. “We have a tri-meet on Saturday and you just have to go out there and finish strong. If we win both of those matches we finish up 19-4 and that’s nothing to hang your head about.

“But obviously, we wish we would have gotten a little further along here than we did.”

GROUP II Playoffs

Buena 28, West Deptford 27

103: Sal Marandino (Buena) def. Dustin Zuzulock, 6-4 (OT); 112: Tyler Kaminski (West Deptford) dec. Conner Palmieri 8-2 ;119: Billy Ward (Buena) maj. dec. Evan Zuzulock 11-0; 125: Jarett Pierotti (Buena) dec. Christian Terinoni 2-1; 130: Josh Gilliano (West Deptford) pin John Renner, 1:22; 135: Jarrett Kelly (Buena) pin Scott Dennis 3:06; 140: Drew Spector (West Deptford) dec. Dillon Berghoff 3-0; 145: Dan Eckley (West Deptford) dec. Justin Pierotti 4-2; 152: James Shields (West Deptford) pin Anthony Lopez, 2:26; 160:Sean Bonner (West Deptford) dec. Quentrelle Merrill 7-3; 171: Rory Bonner (West Deptford) dec. Sergio Cortes (Buena) 6-3; 189: Eric Hensel (Buena) dec. Frank Willerton 10-4; 215: Emad Ziyadeh (Buena) dec. Bryan Snow 5-4; 285: Noah Repko (Buena) pin Jamil Pollard, 5:03.

Match started at 215.