Eagles Wrestlers Enter Showdown with Haddonfield Undefeated

Before a regular-season match was even contested, John Craig knew he had a talented team on his hands.

The fact that standouts Drew Spector, Sean Bonner and James Shields had graduated and left big holes to fill had outsiders thinking that this could be a bit of a down year for the wrestling team.

Craig didn’t share that belief.

“I think that we still will remain a very competitive team,” Craig said in . “We are younger than we have been in the past, but we have kids that want to win and want to succeed. I think we can surprise people.”

Boy, have they.

West Deptford Wednesday night, 35-30, to run its record to 14-0. With 12 matches left on the schedule, the Eagles have just passed the midway point of the season and could not be looking stronger.

There are several factors as to why the team has surpassed the expectations of many. There is strong group of kids who have come up from JV and haven’t missed a beat. There is the emergence of freshman Griffin Bonner. And of course, there is the addition of sophomore Gerald Owens, who secured Wednesday's win with a pin in just 15 seconds.

Craig listed a host of reasons as to why his team has been so good this season, but it all came back to the same basic ingredient every coach hopes to have in his spice cabinet.

“They’ve been able to do it with hard work,” Craig said lafter Friday's win over Collingswood. “They have been able to do it with character and doing the things we have asked of them and being coachable. They are a young group, for the most part, and we are going to be tested.”

That test started with a tri-meet on Saturday against Deptford and Pennsville and continued Wednesday against Haddon Township. Haddonfield is up next with strong programs including Pennsauken, Egg Harbor Township, Clayton/Glassboro and Paulsboro waiting in the wings.

“We have a schedule that I would put up against almost any team in South Jersey over these next two weeks,” Craig said. “We are going to be in some dogfight matches and are going to try and come out on top of all of them. The bottom line is, we want to make sure that come group time and come district time we will be battle-tested, and so far we have been tested a few times and come out on top.”

Senior Evan Zuzulock welcomes the challenge.

"We are going to have to go out harder than ever,” said Zuzulock. “All these teams are really good. We are past our easy streak and are getting into the harder teams, so we have to pick it up where we are giving up bonus points, and win big matches.”

Though the backend of the schedule looks more imposing than the front, don’t be fooled into thinking the Eagles have lucked their way to the top of the Colonial Conference and several South Jersey publications' rankings. The Eagles have had their challenges along the way, including being down midway through a trio of matches.

“I try to let my guys know that no matter what is going on, whether we are winning or losing, they have to try and stay in it,” Craig said. “When you are losing like that you don’t want (the match) to get completely away from you, and we have been pretty good with that. We were losing to St. Augustine, losing to Haddon Heights and losing (to Collingswood), but came back. There are certain weights where we know we are going to be in a tough spot for a little while, but once we wrap around to my bottom guys, we have a chance at doing well. Really, throughout my entire lineup, we can do well anywhere.”

That’s why a tough schedule isn’t likely to intimidate the Eagles over the coming weeks. The team has a great sense of balance, and is determined to get the most out of each match.

“We just practice hard in the room and always have our heads held high,” said junior Tyler Kaminski. “We don’t have over-confidence and we are not under confident. We are perfect.”

So far, so is their record.