Going in with team down 36-31, Ocean City High School pulls off pin in final bout to win
OCEAN CITY – With one bout to go in Thursday evening’s wrestling duel between Ocean City and Mainland Regional, Tommy Grimley had done the math:
“I saw the matches before me,” he said. “I saw there was a real possibility that it would come down to me, and if I get the pin then I win it for Ocean City in the rivalry with Mainland that we’ve always had. So I saw it was a great opportunity for me and I’ll be able to remember this for the rest of my life.”
In what will go down as another classic battle between the two schools, Grimley took to the mat with the Raiders trailing 36-31; only a pin would assure victory.
The sophomore 144-pounder came through with a first-period stack and sent the home gym into hysterics as he was mobbed by teammates.
“It’s always great to wrestle your neighbor,” Red Raiders head coach Dan Calhoun said. “It brings out the crowd and it was just a great atmosphere. The kids did a great job. Hats off to Mainland – they wrestled a really good match.”
The match began with a flurry of pins and it looked like it could be over in 10 minutes at that rate.
The first four bouts were decided by pin, three in the first period.
Talon Fischer (150 pounds), Jon Wootton (165), and Nick Layton (175) pinned for the Raiders while Vincent Chase (157) scored a fall for the Mustangs.
“My teammate Nick Layton came up with a big pin and that was awesome,” Grimley said. “A lot of my teammates had big wins that went into our victory.”
“As coaches you know things change,” Calhoun said. “The tides changed and it ended up in Mainland’s favor but that’s what you coach – you coach in the room that these kids need to prevail no matter what happens and fortunately for us we ended up on the winning side.”
Mainland took five of the next six bouts to grab momentum and lead 33-24.
Mustang Aaron Thompson won a 5-2 decision at 180; Raider Clifford Dirkes scored a pin in 3:26; then it was four Mainland wrestlers in a row – Dan DeFeo getting a pin at heavyweight; Michael Borini scoring a last-second pin at 106 at the 5:54 mark; 113-pounder Andrew Siteman getting a fast pin in 38 seconds and Michael Gerace, at 120, earning his pin in just under a minute.
“This group has great character,” Grimley said. “We’re more of a family than a team. We were thinking this was going to come down to the wire, and I knew I was the last match so I was thinking, ‘This is going to come down to me.’ I had to lock in before my match and be ready for it.”
At 126 Ocean City’s Zarian Cabalo won a 14-point major (16-2), one shy of a technical fall, and at 132 Aiden Leypoldt won a seven-point decision (14-7), one short of a major; every point looming large down the stretch.
“That was key right there,” Mainland coach Clayton Smith said, “but we had several matches where we had opportunities. We had Aiden on his back in a headlock and, in my opinion, he was pinned at one point. It’s in the official’s hands so you leave it to the official, and I’ll leave it at that.”
“Some kids knew they didn’t get the job done, other kids did,” Calhoun said. “That’s what’s great is how individual matches become a team sport. That’s why this sport is unique; even though you’re an individual on the mat, it plays out for the whole team. If you don’t get the job done when you were supposed to pin a kid, that hurts us. But it ended up in our favor and it’s always good to walk away with a win.”
As fans watched the scoreboard and mapped out the possibilities, it felt like a wild finish was coming.
“I’ve been coaching Mainland for 23 or 24 years now,” Smith said. “In the handful of times we’ve beaten Ocean City it was really close like this. But we’ve come here where it’s not a one-bout match, multiple times we’ve really taken the short hand so I really can’t say much for that.”
Mustang Nikko Carfagno’s win by 10-7 decision at 138 set the stage for Grimley.
“What a way to end it, because he knew he needed the fall,” Calhoun said. “A tech fall wasn’t going to help, it was going to tie it and then you go to criteria and that can take forever. So he knew what he needed to do.”
Of course, in a close match like this everything that led up to that finish is just as important.
“Our kid at 150 and our kid at 215 – all due respect – got caught,” said Smith. “They were both winning those matches, and then we wouldn’t be having this conversation the way we are. It’d be a totally different story. But it happens; that’s wrestling.”
The Raiders hoped this could be the start of a run, while Mainland hoped it will serve as a lesson.
“Ocean City-Mainland has always been a huge rivalry, right across the bridge,” Grimley said, “and tonight we won it. A night like this can really get some momentum going. It can really set the pace for the matches we have coming up.”
“They’re really good kids,” Calhoun said. “They’re very coachable and they’re young. Wins like this are great confidence-boosters for them. We have two seniors in the lineup and everyone else is a junior or younger. A lot of our lineup are sophomores so this is something they can grow from. It’s like a snowball rolling down a hill, you want to keep it going. Wins are infectious.”
“Talking to coach Calhoun we were both saying similar things,” Smith said. “You can coach your kids, you can teach your kids, you can motivate your kids. They have to go out and apply it. Some of our kids are really raw and young; four or five have less than two years experience on the mat, which is insane.”
Grimley has personal goals bigger than a January dual match as well.
“I want to place in districts,” Grimley said. “I want to go to regions and place in regions, and I want to go to states. That’s my goal.”
The Mustangs were 6-11 (1-6 in the Cape-Atlantic League) by the end of the week, beating Egg Harbor township 61-9, then losing to Gateway and Cherry Hill West.
Ocean City finished off the week with two losses and a win. The Red Raiders fell to Kingsway 47-30 and to West Deptford 44-25, then came back with a close win over Absegami, 36-33. They are now 8-8 (4-1 CAL).
By KYLE McCRANE/Sentinel Sports