January 30, 2012

Prep's Anthony Pafumi (left) locks up with North Bergen's Eric McMullen at 195. (Photo: Jason Bernstein)

2012 Hudson County Duals Werestling Photo Gallery

UNION CITY – It was a challenge that St. Peter's Prep's Anthony Pafumi wanted.

Pafumi, the state's No. 3 ranked wrestler at 170 pounds, has had some tough bouts this season, but never had he faced the challenge someone with the size and strength of North Bergen's Eric McMullen, ranked No. 2 at 195 pounds.

Despite giving up more than 10 pounds while competing at two weight classes above his normal level, Pafumi earned an impressive 2-1 triple-overtime win at 195 to help propel St. Peter's Prep to a 42-16 in the finals of the Hudson County Duals. It marked the fifth-straight county championship for the Marauders.

"He was excited, he wanted to do it. I talked to him about it (Friday) and he was like 'yeah, yeah I want to wrestle him,'" Prep head coach Anthony Verdi said. "He was giving up almost 20 pounds, but Tony has a lot of talent and he was able to deal with it."

"I knew him from club teams and tournaments," said Pafumi, calling it one of the toughest matches he's had this season. "I knew it was going to be a tough match, but I didn't realize how much that weight was going to feel like. I could feel the weight difference."

The showdown between two of the state's premier grapplers lived up to the hype. Pafumi nearly scored a winning takedown in the third period, but was unable to bring down the powerful McMullen until seconds after time expired.

After a pair of scoreless overtime periods, the quicker Pafumi was able to score the decisive point on McMullen and win the bout that should prove beneficial to both guys down the road as the state team individual tournaments await.

"He needed that match," Verdi said. "He hasn't been in a lot of tough matches in a while so he needed to get pushed like that, even if it was a bigger, stronger, heavier kid, he needed mentally to be in one of those matches."

"Matches like that only make people better," said North Bergen head coach Jerry Maietta. "As disappointed as Eric may be, he needed something like that. Hopefully he'll build off that. Hopefully that will motivate him for the next five weeks."

Pafumi's victory made it 26-16 in favor of No. 2 ranked Prep (11-2) and marked the sixth of 10-straight wins by the Marauders to close out the dual.

North Bergen (13-2), were heavy underdogs, but started off with wins by Luis Gonzalez (120), Anthony Giraldo (126) Manny Dominguez (132) and Tom Maldanado (138) to built up a quick 16-0 lead.

"Starting at 120 I knew they had some of their hammers early on so I knew it was going to be tough early on," Verdi said. "I thought a couple of our younger guys wrestled their guys well in the beginning. We made some mistakes and lost, but we were comfortable."

Peter Hillburn started the momentum shift for the Marauders with a decision over Anthony Dabal at 145 pounds. Alexander Richardson (152) and Francisco Colom (160) followed with a pin and a technical fall. Freshman Jordan Fox put Prep on top to stay when he pinned Paul Arcoas at 170 pounds with fellow freshman Christian Collucci adding a win at 182.

Armond Cox, Ryan Medina, Michael Russo and Sonny Simonetti closed out the duals with victories for Prep.

"They're the No. 2 team in the state for a reason. They're good," said Maietta about his team's toughest dual of the season. "Not only are they good, but they are battle tested. They've been up and down the state, wrestling all of the state powers."

Luis Gonzalez (in red) gave North Bergen a quick lead with his win over Ryan Burkert at 120. (Photo: Jason Bernstein)

2012 Hudson County Duals Werestling Photo Gallery