Coming into Wednesday night’s CVC Colonial Division showdown with visiting Steinert, the Rams had already run the table against the remaining five divisional opponents and needed only a single victory over the Spartans to wrap up the divisional crown.
But Steinert coach Joe Panfili managed to make all the right moves and his Spartans squeezed out every point it could to defeat Hightstown in a thrilling 37-34 decision.
That leaves the Spartans needing to win its final three division matches against Princeton, Trenton and West Windsor-Plainsboro South to win the colonial Division title.
In a match where every single team point counted, Steinert got a stunning comeback pin from 165 pounder Yazid Ahmed over Hightstown’s Antonio Arroyo to pave the way for the victory. Ahmed trailed 6-1 at the end of the first period against Arroyo, who looked unbeatable over the bout’s first two minutes, registering a pair of easy takedowns.
But Ahmed nearly took Arroyo down at the end of the first period and it proved to be a promise of what was to come. Ahmed took Arroyo down to start the second period, then turned him for four points to lead 8-6 heading into the third.
Ahmed finished the job when he launched Arroyo to his back with a headlock, picking up the pin in 4:22.
“The headlock, I’ve trained it a million times in the room,” Ahmed said of the throw that abruptly ended the bout. “I know when it’s there. I threw it and I knew I had the pin.”
It was a splashy finish for Ahmed, but he had to fight his way through some adversity early on in the bout, as he dug himself an early hole by giving up two early takedowns to Arroyo.
“I got taken down early in the match, He said. ”You’ve got to keep your composure. You can’t let it get to you. You’ve got to keep wrestling through it, no matter how hard he comes at you. I needed to come through with a pin. I knew I had it in me, you just have to keep wrestling.”
“He’s emerged as one of the leaders on the team,” Panfili said of Ahmed. “I’m really, really proud of him, the way he’s battled all year long.”
Ahmed’s win turned the tide for the Spartans in a match that was nip and tuck the whole way.
Hightstown coach Mike Russo felt he needed 18 team points out of his first three weights, and while he did get three wins, Steinert made a small gain when the Rams came away from the first three bouts with only 13.
Hightstown 113 pounder Justin San Martin managed to get one of the three pins when he decked Steinert’s Mina Magdy-Badea in 41 seconds. But Ram 106 pounder Angelo Randolph came up shy, settling for a 15-3 major decision over Dino Zulla. And when Hightstown 120 pounder Jordan Corzo won only 6-0 over Matthew Mottola, it was advantage Steinert.
The two teams swapped pins over the next two weights, with Stinert getting a pin from Julian Bitatzyk at 126 over Alex Mikita, and Hightstown picking up a six pointer from Chris Florian over Anthony Ricigliano at 132.
Steinert added another pin at 138 when Alex Castano pinned the Rams’ Joseph Valente in 1:07, but Hightstown was able to claw back some of what they failed to gain in the first three weights when Damien Mora held Steinert’s Yasin Ammed to a 16-3 major decision at 144.
The two teams swapped pins again, with Steinert taking a 22-19 lead when Jackson Clark Goss pinned Jefferson Bautista at 150 and Hightstown jumping back in front 25-22 when Emerson Guerra pinned Solomon Hussein in the first period at 157.
That was when Ahmed scored his big comeback win to put the Spartans up 28-25.
But the match was by no means settled, even though Steinert pulled away in the next bout when Spartan 175 pounder Marcello Pandolfini pinned Jaiker Fabian to give the Spartans a 34-25 lead.
But Hightstown’s Jacob Kramer closed the gap to 34-31 when he needed just 1:20 to pin Jose Samayoa-Rodes.
It appeared to be just a reprieve when Steinert’s Mikey Odige scored four takedowns to score a 14-3 major decision over Iker Reyes at 215, giving the Spartans an insurmountable seven point lead, 38-31 with only one bout left to wrestle.
But in what will forever be enshrined in the Bonehead Hall of Fame, Odige gave Hightstown a chance to tie the match at 285 when he immediately rushed over to the Hightstown bleachers and taunted the Ram faithful.
A team point was deducted, reducing the Steinert lead to 37-31. And just like that, Hightstown’s Branden Martinez had a chance to tie the match with a pin in the final bout of the night.
Martinez would get the victory, defeating Steinert’s Aidan Constance 1-0, but Constance was able to fend off Martinez’ two minute assault on top in the final period to secure the win for the Spartans.
“It was a huge win,” Steinert coach Panfili said afterward. “I’m really proud of my guys, with the grit they showed here. Everybody did their job. We talked about it, the coaches and I calculated, we had a game plan as to what we needed at each weight class. And everything seemed to fall in place and went our way, with the exception of what happened before the last match. That kind of made it a little bit sticky.”
For Hightstown, it was a difficult loss to absorb, having come within a single win of a division title. After the match, Hightstown coach Mike Russo discussed the missed opportunities.
“I thought at the beginning of the match we had to be up 18-0,” he said. “And we should have. We were expecting a pin at 106 and we got a major. I was telling my team, but they were looking at me like I was speaking a different language. I told them, ‘We won that bout, but they won that bout. They were cheering over there because they were supposed to be down 6-0, but were only down 4-0.’ They were looking at me like a deer in the headlights.
“They’re wrestling good,” Russo added, turning his attention to Steinert. “We have respect for them. I told everyone this was gonna’ be a thirty-something to thirty-something and it’s going to come down to the last match. They usually don’t make moves, and they made the right moves tonight and it worked out.”
