Plainfield South starts strong, comes back stronger to spoil Plainfield Central’s senior night

PLAINFIELD – Wednesday night was supposed to belong to Plainfield Central. After all, it was senior night on the Wildcats' home mat. After a slow start, they looked like they might honor those seniors with a runaway win over Plainfield South.

Unfortunately for them and fortunately for the Cougars, how it started was how it finished.

After going up by 15 in three matches, the Cougars dropped the next five contests and were on their heels. It was all Plainfield South the rest of the way, though, as the Cougars won all but one match the rest of the way to earn a commanding 44-30 Southwest Prairie Conference victory and spoil the evening for the Wildcats.

“This is all practice for regionals, sectionals and state,” Cougars coach Daniel Saracco said. “We’re just trying to get our kids better, put them in positions to be successful and our coaches are doing a great job of that.”

Things were heavy from the start, literally, as the 285-pound heavyweight match was up first. Anthony Montoya of Central and Ian Portillo of South were deadlocked for much of the match before Portillo was awarded three points late in the third period to take the win by 4-2 decision.

The Cougars were given automatic wins at 106 and 113 via forfeit, giving Daryl Kolego and Drew Ritchie victories and South a 15-0 lead.

The 120-pound match was between Central’s Jayden Mizelle and South’s Islam Ismanaliev. Ismanaliev held a 3-1 lead going into the second period and it grew to 6-2 entering the third before Mizelle pulled ahead to win 8-7 in the final 30 seconds. That trimmed the deficit to 15-3.

Next was the 126-pound match between Liam Thompson of the Wildcats and Travis Rebout of the Cougars. Thompson needed just one minute to win that one by fall and trim it to 15-9.

The 132-pound match saw Brody Rangel and Terrence Emmans face off. Rangel only needed 58 seconds to win that one by fall for the Wildcats and tie the dual at 15-15.

Diego Cambray of Plainfield Central and Dimmy Medina of Plainfield South went head to head next in the 138-pound battle. Cambray took a 7-1 lead early and grew it to 15-1 and got the win by fall with 19.9 seconds left in the match to extend the lead to 21-15.

Jack Bowen of Plainfield Central and Kyle McCormick of Plainfield South duked it out next at 144. Bowen took an early 3-0 lead, grew it to 5-0 in the second wound up taking it by 5-1 decision. Central’s lead grew to 24-15.

Armani Esparza for the Wildcats took on Casper Szozda for the Cougars next at 150. The Cougars looked to be turning things around in that one as Szozda took a 9-0 first period lead. Szozda won by technical fall at the end of the second to narrow the score to 24-20.

“I knew I had to get it done for the team,” Szozda said. “There were a few tough matches after me so I knew I had to give us a boost in confidence.”

Emiliano Ramirez and Brad Surwillo competed at the 157 spot. Surwillo took a 3-0 edge late in the first, it grew to 11-0 in the second, and won by fall with 61 seconds left in the match to put the Cougars back on top 26-24.

Adian Machalski repped the Wildcats at 165 while the Cougars sent Chase Pierceall into battle. Pierceall took an early 7-0 lead and ended it by fall midway through the second to extend it to 32-24 in favor of Plainfield South.

Nicholas Breier suited up for Central at 175 to take on Colin Bierkett. Bierkett needed just 53 seconds to pin Breier and make the lead insurmountable at 38-24.

Still, the match rolled on at 190 with Michael Laudadio battling Julius Pierscionek. Pierscionek managed to win by fall with 1:21 left in the match to stretch it to 44-24.

The final match of the night was at 215 between Anthony Minnito and Jamal Jones Jr. Minnito snapped the skid for the Wildcats with 17 seconds left in the second with a win by fall, but it was too late to change the result of the dual.

“We’re just looking at improving and getting through it,” Wildcats coach Terry Kubski said. “Giving up two weight classes right away is always tough so we’re just looking at our fight and battle which I think we had tonight.”