February 9, 2012

North Bergen's Hector Rosero (in red) tries to escape the clutches of Mike Rettino. (Photo: Jason Bernstein)

North Bergen at Morris Knolls Werestling Photo Gallery

ROCKAWAY – North Bergen coach Jerry Maietta was straight and to the point when assessing the Morris Knolls squad which had ended his team's state playoff run last night, referring to their Morris County opposition as a "very good team" on multiple occasions.

It would have been hard to argue that statement as Morris Knolls displayed all the traits of a top program in its 48-24 victory over the Bruins last night in the NJSIAA North 1, Group 4 semifinals at Morris Knolls High School.

"We knew they were a good team and there were a couple of matches that we had to take and we didn't take those," Maietta said. "We gave up a lot of bonus points and we were hoping we wouldn't give up bonus points. That's the match."

The Golden Eagles (17-1) quickly showed why they are ranked 14th in the state, taking the first four bouts (three by pin) of the dual, starting with Steve Weis' pin over Alex De La Cruz at 152. De La Cruz had the lead in points after the first round and was on the verge of scoring a winning fall, but was unable to finish.

It would become an all too familiar theme for North Bergen (17-4), which had a couple of early leads in matches, only to end up losing in the end.

"You've got to capitalize on opportunities and we didn't do that," Maietta said. "We had a couple of situations where we could have, and we didn't capitalize and it came back to bite us."

Down 21-0, Eric McMullen gave the Bruins life with a pin over Ben Corbitt at 195. The optimism would be short lived as a frantic comeback from Nick Garcia against Kyle Smith at 220 came up short and the Golden Knights received consecutive pins from Jermaine Eluemunor (285) and Jan Rosenberg (106).

A come-from-behind win by Santiago Arbelaez over the Bruins' Rick Garcia slammed any hopes of a comeback shut.

Luis Gonzalez (120) and Tom Maldanado (132) had pins for North Bergen, which now looks to regroup before an independent match on Friday and the upcoming individual tournaments, starting with the Districts on Saturday, Feb. 18.

"We'll talk about the mistakes, make corrections and we'll go from there," said Maietta. "These guys are focused so they know what they need to do. We have a week and a half left with the team and we'll go from there."

North Bergen's Tom Maldanado (in red) needed just 49 seconds to win his match at 132. (Photo: Jason Bernstein)

North Bergen at Morris Knolls Werestling Photo Gallery