Joliet Central starts,closes strong in dual win over Plainfield East

PLAINFIELD – They say it’s not about how you start, but how you finish. Good for the Joliet Central wrestling team, though, it did both of those things well Thursday night.

The Steelmen won their first three matches against Plainfield East on the road before winning their final eight to dominate the Bengals 56-18 in a dual.

Joliet Central entered the year seeking its first conference title in nearly 40 years. Led by two-time state qualifier Charles Walker at 215 pounds, the Steelmen brought experienced competitors into the season. That showed Thursday after the first two matches went the distance before the Steelmen got a victory by fall. They dropped the next three contests before dominating the rest of the way.

“Evan Patton at heavyweight set the tone,” Central coach Patrick McGovern said. “Charles got going with the tech fall, but in those swing matches Evan was the changing moment. It gave us all the momentum in a (15)-second pin. That was a huge momentum swing for us, and we got into our senior-heavy lineup from there.”

The competition started with an improbable comeback that wasn’t meant to be. Isaiah Kan was in firm control of the 144 match against Nick Polzin, going up 8-1 through two rounds. Polzin battled back, cutting his deficit to 9-8 before the clock ran out with Kan escaping with a victory. That gave the Steelmen a 3-0 edge as a team.

The 150-pound bout wasn’t as eventful. Tremaine Cooper of Joliet Central and Mohamed Hasib of the Bengals battled to a 0-0 draw after one before Cooper got going late in the second. He did enough to ultimately pull out a 9-2 win to increase the lead to 6-0 for Central.

Joliet Central’s footing got stronger from there. Mark Bew battled out to a 13-2 advantage before winning by fall with four seconds remaining in the second over Colin Adams in the 157 match to stretch the edge to 12-0.

Plainfield East came right back in its first win of the night. The 165 bout was over in 103 seconds after Joseph Nino beat Brendan Heran by fall to cut the deficit to 12-6. In the 175-pound contest between Robert Vogel and Xavier Eggert, it was a near identical result. Vogel won by fall in 2:39 to pull the Bengals even, 12-12.

Plainfield East continued the hot streak at 190. Hugh Callaghan defeated Daniel Ceritos by fall in just 11 seconds to put the Bengals up 18-12.

The Steelmen bounced back in the 215 competition, as Walker dominated Colin Dominiak. Walker led 17-3 after one round and won by technical fall just four seconds into the second. That cut the deficit to 18-17 before Patton put Central on top 23-18 with a fall over Xavier Casey in just 26 seconds.

“I was feeling excited,” Paton said. “I got that big slam, and it really changed the tempo of the entire match.”

Alen Baeza won by forfeit at 106 to increase the advantage to 29-18. That was followed by a 113 match between Brian Tejeda of Plainfield East and Liam Walsh of Central, with Walsh winning by fall with 32 seconds left in the first round to make it 35-18. Allen Allende made it five wins in a row for the Steelmen as he won by fall with 1:11 left in the second over Ethan Cudal to make it 41-18.

The 126 match between Max Batnick of the Bengals and Brody Walsh of the Steelmen saw Walsh win by fall with five ticks left in the second to make it 47-18. A victory by fall with six seconds left in the second for Jowel Maldonado over Jacob Stokes gave Central seven wins in a row and a 53-18 edge.

The night concluded with a 138-pound bout between Plainfield East’s Daniel Nevarez and Joliet Central’s David Calderon. That match ended the way the dual started, by going the distance with Calderon winning 10-5.

“I saw a lot of great things tonight from our young guys,” Bengals coach Charles Trabaris said. “Our varsity team is really young. We’ve got a lot of sophomores and juniors in the lineup, and I saw a lot tonight in team camaraderie. There’s some stuff we have to work on, but it’s early, and now we know what we need to work on.”