Despite their unimposing stature, Indian River’s bottom half of their varsity wrestling lineup — including Delphino Pascual, Antonio Gonzalez, Mike Magaha and Darjuan Pitts — proved to the be the strongest link on its team in a 42-31 comeback win over Cape Henlopen and a 44-24 loss to Caravel.
Coastal Point • JESSE PRYOR
After trailing Cape Henlopen 31-18, Delphino Pascual earns one of four unanswered pins in the final four matches to give Indian River a 42-31 win.Indian River trailed Cape Henlopen 31-18 with only four matches remaining. With that said, Indian River went to work. Pascual was first to punch in, at 103 pounds.
Pascual never gave recently-promoted varsity freshman Andrew Ricker a chance to breathe in a dismantling 10-0 second-period pin.
Indian River freshman 112-pounder Antonio Gonzalez cut the Viking lead to 31-30 after rallying to record a second-period pin over accomplished 103-pounder Chris McMahon (15-11, 5-2) despite falling behind 4-2 after the first period.
Indian River 119-pounder Mike Magaha then gave the Indians their first lead at 36-31 by recording a 4-0 pin over natural 112-pounder John Young in a little over 90 seconds.
“Once I saw Antonio get a pin, it made me want to go out and stick the kid like he did,” Magaha said.
With that lead, Indian River would win the match if Pitts stayed off his back.
Pitts back never got dirty.
He scored twice inside of 30 seconds and finally worked around for a 4-0 pin with 19 seconds remaining over Jeffery Rogan, giving the Indians the win.
“We have a couple spots where we’re going to get points,” Indians head coach Jeff Windish said. “And down low is one of the strong spots in our lineup.”
“Luke Saylor was another big match,” he continued. “Having Bo and Luke in the middle at 140-145 pounds is really big to have that kind of pinning potential.”
Saylor earned a 4-0 over Chris Williams with 31 seconds left in the first period to give the Indians their first score of the match.
Wilkinson didn’t get the pin over Derek Gay in the Cape Henlopen match, instead earning a 5-0 decision. He did secure a 4-0 pin over Caravel’s Mark Williams at 145 pounds on Jan. 20.
Magaha and Pitts helped keep the score close against Caravel through the first four matches, at 10-9 with a 6-3 second-period pin over Matt Buckworth and a 6-3 decision over Nick Manchini. But eventually the Buccaneers proved the better team.
Dominique Morris (152 pounds) scored six unanswered third-period points, including a near-fall as time expired, earning a 6-3 decision over Dallas Henry. Tarez Cheers earned an 8-4 third-period pin for their final win of the match. But the wins were too few.
Caravel amassed four pins and four decisions, including a 5-3 decision by last year’s 171-pound state champion, Vinny Ranuto, over Perry Townsend at 215 pounds, and a forfeit.
Ranuto (24-3) has spent much of his time between the 171- and 189-pound weight classes this season but moved up against Townsend to prevent an Indian River pin.
Coastal Point • JESSE PRYOR
After trailing Cape Henlopen 31-18, Delphino Pascual earns one of four unanswered pins in the final four matches to give Indian River a 42-31 win.“This was a match that we wanted to see, but also because we wanted to try to get points instead of giving up six,” Ranuto said.
And despite the score in the Caravel match, first-year Buccaneer head coach Joe Archangelo never felt comfortable until the match was over. And even then he wanted a few matches to go their way.
“Indian River has a feisty group of kids and we knew coming in that this would be a tough competition,” he said. “The 152-pound match had a good twist. Just when you think you’ll pull it out… And there were a few matches in the lower weight classes that we would’ve like to have had, but I coached Jeff Windish at Salesianium so I knew what his team was about.”
“I knew he’d have his guys ready and that we couldn’t take any match for granted,” Archangelo concluded.
Indian River will wrestle at Sussex Central tonight at 7 p.m. and host Caesar Rodney on Jan. 31.