WESTTOWN >> Longtime Upper Darby coach Bob Martin missed his team’s opening round District One AAA match against West Chester East due to sickness. Given the early miscues from the Royals, it might have been a blessing in disguise.
Fourth-seeded Upper Darby endured a 9-point swing — Coltrane Mosley-Jones was pinned after leading 9-1 — and a 6-point swing — Dante Daniels gave up a 1-0 advantage as time expired — in a span of three matches at West Chester Rustin High School. Martin would have yelled himself hoarse. Of course, for those who know him, he would have done that anyway.
“I might have had to perform CPR,” quipped Royals assistant coach Ryan Colley.
Upper Darby’s Sam DePhillipo, left, tries to get West Chester East’s Tyler Blum on his back in the first period of the 132-pound bout Thursday. Upper Darby scored a 40-21 win in the first round of District One Duals. (Digital First Media/Nate Heckenberger)
The absent coach didn’t need to be resuscitated, but Upper Darby did. After trailing by five at the midway point, the Royals rolled off six wins in the last seven matches to secure a 40-21 victory.
“It’s pretty simple,” said Colley, in his second year on Martin’s staff. “Every match counts.”
The rough patch started at 182 pounds, where Mosley-Jones failed to close out his opponent. The senior tossed the Vikings’ Aaron Nelson all over the mat and displayed an experienced and effective top-game. But he got greedy.
When Mosley-Jones went to flip Nelson, the East wrestler turned the move against him to get the pin and six points.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Daniels led Erick Narvaez-Rivera with three seconds remaining in his bout at 220 pounds. A hold infraction tied things at one. Then, with Daniels on top, Narvaez-Rivera flipped the unsuspecting Royal on his back. Twice in a blink of an eye Upper Darby faltered. They wouldn’t be beaten, though.
“We might have lost a few that we should have won,” said Colley. “But we also had guys who gutted it out.”
The rally started in earnest at 113, where Jacob Mejias, an All-Delco a season ago, continued his terrific campaign. He pinned Ethan Samuel in 1:13 to give the Royals a 19-18 lead, an advantage they wouldn’t relinquish.
“I really wanted to focus on what I had to do,” Mejias said of overcoming his team’s early deficit. “I had to go out to wrestle and get a pin.”
As one of the few seniors on the team, Mejias adopted a leadership role in his own style. He’s not one to cheer loudly.
Instead, he simply wrestles.
“I’m not a vocal leader,” he explained. “I have a hard work ethic. I may not be the best, but I wrestle hard, and I hope I leave that impression on teammates.”
They certainly followed suit Thursday night.
Thomas Reif won a tough 1-0 match at 120. Nick Venuti, in one of those “gut-it-out” performances Colley alluded too, avoided a pin in a 7-1 defeat against Noah Hankin.
Then Upper Darby (18-2) took charge for good. Sam DePhillipo and Colin Cronin delivered back-to-back pins to clinch the win and see off the 13th-seeded Vikings.
Despite the two hiccups, it was a convincing showing from the Royals. All of their big guns produced, from Cronin to Brian Kennerley — now 23-2 following a 12-3 major decision over Erik Gassenmyer — to Max Livingston who put an exclamation point on the match with a 4-0 win.
Now Upper Darby will advance to face No. 12 Rustin, a team that upset No. 5 North Penn in the first match of the evening.
Colley acknowledged that if the wrestling matches the potential, the Royals could be a real threat in the District.
“We’re lucky that we’ve had guys come through for us,” he said. “If we can get going on all cylinders we can do some damage.”
Also in District Duals:
Pennridge 33, Garnet Valley 31 >> Austin Rush’s 9-2 decision over Kevin Christie at 120 pounds in the penultimate bout sealed a nail-biting victory for the Rams at Council Rock South.
The Jaguars jumped out to an 18-3 behind successive pins by Dave Wood at 138, Robbie Peters at 145 and Matt Mortimer at 152. Pennridge responded with five straight wins, including two forfeits, before a Tommy Mahoney decision at 285 and a Gavin Hollingsworth major decision at 106 pushed Garnet Valley back into contention.
