Spartans down Knights 41-15 for CJ III title BY LINDSEY SIEGLE Staff Writer PHOTOS BY CHRIS KELLY staff Ocean’s Greg Soto locks Wall’s Bob Scholl in a cradle during the Spartans’ CJ Group III championship win over the Crimson Knights on Feb. 19 in OCean Township. OCEAN TOWNSHIP — Losing the toss could have been the key to the Spartans victory over the Wall Knights in the Central Jersey Group III title bout last week. Coach Ken Hoff acknowledged that he planned to move stellar freshman Kyle Kiss away from Wall’s undefeated Steve Kuzy if he had his choice, but wasn’t too worried if he wasn’t going to be able to do it. He couldn’t, and Wall coach Carl Perino moved Kuzy from 152, where he has wrestled all year, down to 145 to face Kiss. The bout was just the second of the night, but it may have been the turning point in the Spartans’ 41-15 victory. Dan Lopes hoists the NJSIAA CJ Group III trophy after the Spartans knocked off Wall Township on Feb. 19 at Ocean Township. Kiss, who came into the match with a 20-3 record, fell behind when Kuzy scored a takedown in the first period. Kiss started on the bottom in the second period and Kuzy let him up to make the score 2-1 and scored a takedown to push his margin to 4-1. It looked like the Wall wrestler had wrapped up the victory before Kiss scored a stunning reversal and was able to put him on his back for a two-count to pull off the improbable 5-4 win. Even though the win only evened the team score in the match, the emotional loss took the wind out of the Knights, according to Perino. It also gave the Spartans a big boost. "I felt confident with Kiss facing Kuzy at 145 and that win really got the team motivated," Hoff said. Ocean’s Kyle Kiss tries to score a single-leg takedown against Wall Township’s Steve Kuzy during the Spartans’ CJ Group II win on Feb. 19. The Spartans and Knights split the next two bouts with freshman Jeff Siciliano pulling his team even with a 7-4 victory over Drew McLellan. Greg Soto put the Spartans ahead to stay with a 10-0 win and Brian Pemberton and Brendan Bannon stretched the margin in the team tilt to 19-6 with victories at 189 and 215. Bannon pinned Wall’s Andrew Navarro with 40 seconds left in the third period. Pemberton victory over Wall’s Steve Scholl, who came into the match with a 22-3 record, was an important victory to Hoff. "They had met twice before and split," Hoff said. "This time Pemberton won it." At 275 the Spartans sent Bob Fox against the Knights’ Drew Doyle and his 12-4 victory stretched the team score to 23-6 in Ocean’s favor. After Wall standout Blaine Woszczak put Frank Gnassi on his back at 103, Ocean’s Dan Lopes did the same to Jake Morris at 112 to put the Spartans’ margin back to 17 points at 29-12. Any chance the Knights may have had of scoring the team victory disappeared when George Herbert had to retire due to illness in his bout against Brett Czerwinski at 119. The six points Czerwinski earned pushed the team score to 35-12 and with only three bouts left ensured the Spartans of their first Central Jersey Group III title. Hoff, who has been watching Herbert wrestle since he was in the junior program, said he felt bad for the Wall wrestler, but noted that Czerwinski, who has not been able to get a lot of time on the mats this year himself, was holding his own in the match. Joe Falco picked up the decision over the Knights Mike Lidon and Wall’s Bob Sprengel was able to hold out for a 2-1 victory over Maverick Nunes-Vais. Gaetjens Lezin ended the match on a positive note for the Spartans with a 3-2 victory over Marc Darocki to close out the match. Unfortunately, the Spartans were unable to carry their momentum over into the Group III semifinal on Saturday at Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton. There, Ocean ran into the state’s fourth-ranked team, Kingsway, and fell, 43-27 despite another strong effort. Ocean managed to keep it close thanks to a hard-fought win from Nunes-Vais (5-4) at 130, and pins from Greg Soto (171), Dan Lopes (112), Brett Czerwinski (119) and Joe Falco (125). But in the end, Kingsway proved to be too much for the young Spartans, who are now looking forward to this weekend’s District tournament, and the chance to advance to the individual state tournament.