By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
PAULSBORO — On South Delaware Avenue there’s a building with a mural painted on the side that says, “Welcome to Paulsboro, Home of Champions.”
That statement couldn’t be more true — at least as far as the high school’s wrestling program is concerned.
On Thursday night, Paulsboro proved it’s still Paulsboro, despite coming into the South Jersey Group 1 championship match against upstart Schalick with seven losses on the record. The Cougars came in with a sparkling 24-1 record, but it takes more than numbers to beat the Red Raiders in their home gym. Paulsboro won 11 of the 14 weight classes to cruise to a 56-17 victory.
Paulsboro and winning sectional titles have gone hand-in-hand, as the Raiders have won all but one of them since the inception of the sectional tournaments in 1980. Only Collingswood in 2008 was able to beat them out for a championship, and Paulsboro has never lost a postseason match in its home gym. Like, ever.
“They wrestled well. They came in ready to wrestle and our kids did a good job, there were some good matches. The kids have been coming on and in the last two weeks they’ve really been wrestling well and that’s all you can ask,” said legendary coach Paul Morina, he of a state-best 800-plus wins in 40 seasons at the helm. “We’ve come a long way and the kids have improved so much in the last three weeks. They work hard and continue to get better. This team started believing in themselves and started pulling together, their attitudes are great, and that’s a great combination that allows you to win matches. We had a lot of matches leading up to this that were all close.”
It may have seemed as though Paulsboro’s run might come to an end this year, as the Red Raiders were just 7-7 into late January, but they’ve come together at the right time and ripped off eight straight wins, including three in the state playoffs. They’ll travel to Hanover Park tonight at 7 in the Group 1 state semifinals. The winner will wrestle for a state championship on Sunday at Rutgers University.
“That felt good. We put in more work, and it shows,” said 150-pound junior Kyaire Harvey, who scored a hard-fought, 12-6 decision against Ayden Jenkins that gave Paulsboro an early 23-6 lead.
The match swung in the middle weights, as Sawyer Cabanas scored a pin at 157 pounds before junior Deano Lucas wowed the crowd by pinning Dezyon Purnell with eight seconds left in the bout. That gave Paulsboro a nearly insurmountable 35-6 lead.
The bout was tied at 6 heading into the third period, and Purnell went ahead 8-6 with a reversal, but Lucas fought back in the final 30 seconds and got the pin.
“He shot on me, I put heavy hips on him, saw he wasn’t really doing anything so I threw that half (Nelson) in there and ran with it. When you get someone (in that position) you have to keep them there and stick (the move),” Lucas explained. “It was up down. I got taken down at first and was losing the match, but I’m from Paulsboro — I work harder than everybody I wrestle, I out-condition everybody. I saw him get tired and went with it, and I turned him. I wrestled up tonight and I think he was a little stronger than me, but in the room we work hard and I feel like I just out-conditioned him. I saw him get tired and I didn’t.”
“He’s in the room working hard every day and he deserved it,” Harvey said of his classmate.
Schalick (24-2, 6-0 Tri-County Classic) got to within 35-17 after a technical fall by Ricky Watt at 175 pounds and a pin by Evan Elliott at 190, but Paulsboro won the next two bouts to secure the win, and the Cougars forfeited the final two weight classes.
Harvey was also down late, like Lucas, but he was able to take Jenkins down with a hip toss and get back points with 15 seconds left. The seven-point move erased a 6-5 deficit.
“I battled. I knew what I could do. I kind of tossed him and got him to his back,” Harvey said. “It felt good knowing that (after that win) we were probably going to win the match. I have one more year to prove myself, but this feels good. We’re not done yet, we still have two more to go.”
“Harvey is something. He did a great job,” Morina said. “The rest of the weight classes I felt pretty good about. And Deano came through for us, he needed that.”
Paulsboro (15-7, 3-1 Colonial Liberty) is the No. 4 seed in the four-team group bracket and will have to get through No. 2 Hanover Park and either No. 4 New Milford or No. 1 Delaware Valley. But, like Lucas says, don’t count the Red Raiders out.
“We don’t go down without a fight. We’re well conditioned, we work hard all year, and we just have heart. Paulsboro pride, that’s what we do,” he said. “This was a statement. We are Paulsboro, no matter what the record looks like, we’re still a tough team and don’t count us out. We’re always going to come back at the end of the year and show you what we’re made of.”
Added Morina, “it’s always great to have championships here. People look forward to the end of the year and these types of matches, and hopefully winning championships.”
WHAT’S NEXT: No. 4 New Milford at No. 1 Delaware Valley, tonight at 6; No. 3 Paulsboro at No. 2 Hanover Park, tonight at 7. Winners wrestle for the Group 1 state championship on Sunday at Rutgers at noon.
