By Mike McClure
The Laurel varsity wrestling team held off Woodbridge, 40-36, last Wednesday in Laurel in a battle of undefeated Henlopen South teams. Woodbridge entered the road match 4-0 in the South and 10-0 overall while the Bulldogs were 3-0 in the South and 4-0 overall. Laurel led by 20 points going into the final five matches before two Raider wrestlers won by technical fall to close the gap. Bulldogs’ senior Kymani Roberts recorded a pin in the 190 pound match to seal his team’s win.
“We’ve got so much heart down here. We’ve gone through a lot of adversity,” said Roberts. “We will come out on top. We fight through adversity real well.”
Laurel’s Landen Messick, left, looks to take down his Woodbridge opponent. Messick won the 157 pound match by major decision. Photo by Mike McClure
Laurel’s Reginald Ferdinand (106) and Nathan Moore (113) opened the meet with pins with Ferdinand winning by fall in the first 26 seconds. Woodbridge’s Gunner Scoles held a 3-0 lead over Laurel’s Omar Long in the first period of the 120 pound match before getting a pin with 18 seconds remaining in the period.
Bulldogs’ senior Kade Wootten (126) came back with a pin with 1:12 left in the opening period to put his team up 18-6.
“We knew the first couple matches we had to put points up because we know the next matches would be swing matches so we had to put points up,” Wootten said. “We practice a lot. It comes down to mentality and whose going to be the dog on the mat.”
Woodbridge’s Andrew Amalfitano (132) took a 6-1 lead in the first, led 12-2 after two, and won by technical fall, 18-3, with 1:14 left in the third. Laurel’s Ezekiel O’Hara (138) recorded a second period pin and Kenyen Littleton (144) took an 11-0 lead before winning by fall with 1:05 to go in the opening period for a 30-11 Laurel advantage.
The closest match of the night was in the 150 pound match between Woodbridge’s King Peden and Laurel’s Ian Messick. The match was scoreless through regulation before Peden scored three points with 48 seconds left in overtime. The Bulldogs went up by 20 points when Landen Messick (157) won by major decision, 10-2.
The Raiders rallied in the next two matches, starting with Noah Jackson’s 17-1 technical fall win with 27.5 seconds remaining in the third period of the 160 pound match. Teammate James Jones (175) took a 6-2 lead in the first, led 15-3 in the second, and won by technical fall with 1:33 left in the third to make the score 34-24.
Kymani Roberts gets the pin with less than 10 seconds left in the 190 pound match after getting a takedown. The pin sealed the Bulldogs’ 40-36 home win over Woodbridge. Photo by Mike McClure
Woodbridge needed a win in the 190 pound match to have a chance at completing the rally. The Raiders’ Jenel Sterile scored three points in the opening period and held on to a narrow 3-2 lead. The second period went back and forth with Roberts taking an 8-5 lead. Needing to score points, Sterile took a shot but Roberts was able to flip him over and get a pin with 8.8 seconds left in the third period.
“I was like “I can’t lose”. I flipped him over and got the pin,” said Roberts. “It feels like in basketball, you just hit a game-winner.”
The Raiders won the final two matches as Jack Wanzer (215) held a 1-0 lead through two periods after a scoreless first and recorded a pin with 36 seconds remaining in the third. Woodbridge’s Te’Quan Smith (285) held a 3-1 lead before winning by fall with 15 seconds left in the first period to make the final score 40-36.