Big night for South Plainfield

I didn't look at South Plainfield's consecutive losses to Perth Amboy (31-29) and Camden Catholic (33-29) last week as Armageddon. The Tigers didn't wrestle well against Perth Amboy and didn't have the greatest effort against Camden Catholic, according to coach Kevin McCann.

For the Tigers fans who made the excuse that their team didn't have 160/171 pound senior Mark Wagner against Perth Amboy. South Plainfield should have found a way to win that one without him. Ask McCann.

But the Tigers learned a valuable lesson that they have taught so many of their opponents over the years -- if you're not willing to take a six minute journey through pain, sweat, etc., somebody is going to knock you off. Somebody did it twice last week.

But.

South Plainfield (4-2) got back to its staple for winning big matches Thursday night in a 34-20 win over previously-unbeaten Delaware Valley (6-1). The teams split seven bouts, but the Tigers avoided losing bonus decisions at 135, 140 and 152 against three of Del Val's better kids -- P.J. Steinbeiser, Rich Gebert and Nick LeFevre. Kyle Pompilio stayed off his back at 112 against Del Val's Bobby Stevely. Delaware Valley trailed 24-16 at that point and still had a shot, but sophomore Nick Heilmann put it away for South Plainfield with a fall at 119.

Bonus points was all South Plainfield: Mark Wagner, Dan Pompilio and Heilman had falls. Del Val had no falls. Stevely and Jake Rosocha (125) had major decisions for Del Val and Ryan Sacco (130) finished the night for South with one.

That was it.

Now the Tigers gear up for what should be a competitive match with Edison Saturday followed by another showdown with a strong Skyland Conference team -- our friends from 5-0 Hackettstown.