Coming off a tough, 31-27 loss to Kingsway Thursday, the Pirates wanted to take care of business early Saturday morning and then make a big statement to the South Jersey wrestling community in the afternoon. Cinnaminson did just that by defeating Pennsauken 54-12 and then Haddonfield 34-31.
“Thursday was kind of a low point, but I couldn’t be happier with where we are right now,” head coach Mike McConnell said. “To come back and beat a good, quality program like Haddonfield today; we couldn’t be happier with how today turned out.”
The wrestling sweep was a big one as Saturday marked the cutoff date for teams to accrue power points for the state tournament.
The Pirates dominated Pennsauken from start to finish on Saturday, winning the first seven bouts before dropping three in a row. Cinnaminson then won three of the final four bouts to finish the match with a 54-12 victory to move to 12-2 on the season.
After Pennsauken and Haddonfield collided in the middle match, the Pirates took on the Bulldogs in the final match of the day. With Haddonfield beating Pennsauken, the Bulldogs came into the match against Cinnaminson with a record of 17-5.
This match went just about how everyone figured it would; a back and forth affair that saw Haddonfield lead by as much as seven points and Cinnaminson lead by as much as six.
Down 22-15 going into the 160-pound bout, Mike Dunleavy got things going for Cinnaminson with a 7-3 decision to pull the Pirates within 22-18.
Liam Wharton followed at 170-pounds with a dominating, 13-5 major decision to tie the match at 22 points.
“I knew he (Joe Murray) was gonna try to be aggressive so I tried to work my moves, get duck unders and work my shots,” Wharton said. “It felt absolutely amazing. It just felt great.”
“Liam was the hero of the day,” McConnell said. “He won a wrestle-off to get on the mat. He definitely rose to the occasion today. He came up big.”
Shaun Davilla then pinned at 2:52 to give the Pirates a 28-22 lead.
Haddonfield would come back to tie the match at 28 before Joe Cody and Keith Swartley picked up six points via 3-2 and 5-0 decisions, respectively.
“He (Hunter Fasolo) was a real big guy,” Swartley said. “I knew eventually he would get tired and gas out. After the first period, I hung around a little bit. I stayed on top of him and as soon as the third period came I knew he wasn’t holding me down.”
“Our guys up top, Joe and Keith, they knew they were in a must-win situation to take the pressure off of TJ (Emanuel),” McConnell said.
Leading 34-28, all Emanuel had to do was avoid being pinned in his bout at 106-pounds, the final one of the day. Emanuel took one for the team, wrestled well, and took a 3-0 loss as the Bulldogs picked up three points that did not matter in the final score as Cinnaminson prevailed with a 34-31 victory to move to 13-2.
“He’s (Emanuel) a team player and he made sure he could secure the win for the team,” McConnell said. “That’s TJ. He’s a great team player and I’m happy with his performance.”
The Pirates return to the mat on Wednesday when they host Patriot Division opponent Willingboro at 4pm. A win would give the Pirates the Patriot crown as they are 3-0 in division play coming into this match.
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