Delbarton Rules at Morris County Wrestling Tournament

After leading day one of the Morris County Tournament at Mount Olive High School, the Delbarton wrestling team continued their torrid pace, with five champions propelling the team into a first place overall finish.

Leading the way for Delbarton was 140-pound junior Devon Gobbo who earned a championship with a dominating 9-4 win over No. 1 seeded Eric Fakardo of Boonton.

Gobbo, who stopped Montville’s Dave Fano, Phil Tomaro of Parsippany and Roxbury junior Tim Garripoli on his way to the finals, was awarded with the tournaments Most Outstanding Wrestler Award as voted on by the coaches.

“I feel pretty good,” Gobbo said after taking home the gold. “I went into the match pretty confident, I just wanted to hit my shots and keep doing things the way that I’ve been doing. I always like to be in control of my matches. Sometimes the scores don’t show it, but even if it’s 2-0 or 4-0, I try to stay in control as much as possible.”

At 135-pounds, senior Jeff Canfora won his fourth straight Morris County title as he crushed Kinnelon’s Luke Maroldi 11-3 in the tournament finals.

“I feel like I turned it on as the match went along,” Canfora said. “I came out energetic, but a little sloppy and then once I felt him to start getting a little tired, that’s when I turned it on.”

“I’m on a list of five people now,” he added in reference to winning four straight county titles, “looking at all of the names on that list, almost all of them are state champions. It’s a great accomplishment and I feel great about it.”

At 119-pounds sophomore Nick Anderson took home the gold with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Madison’s Patsy Davis in a match that was scoreless heading into the third period.

Anderson would score a reversal with less than 30 seconds remaining to lock up the county title.

“I’m super excited,” Anderson said. “I knew it was going to be a tough match, Patsy is a really good opponent and I was happy to get that reversal in the end and secure the victory.”

Delbarton would also earn county titles at 112-pounds and 130-pounds.

Junior Max Rogers (112) stopped Mendham’s John Walker 3-2 with a last second takedown in the third period, after trailing 2-1 headed into the final frame.

At 130-pounds, junior Jorge Lopez also won his finals match by a score of 3-2, as he fended off a late attempt at a takedown by Montville’s Mike Polizzi in the third period.

“Whenever you have a big tournament like this, there’s a lot of things that you look at that are positive and there’s also some negative things,” Delbarton head coach Bryan Stoll said. “Obviously I think this is something that we can build off of and learn from and get better from.

Delbarton would also see senior Dean Sullivan (215-pounds) finish in second place as he fell to Morristown’s Darren Dungee 5-3 in the finals.

After being tied 2-2 heading into the third period, Dungee took control, escaping from the bottom position before sealing the win with a takedown late in the third.

“I feel really good,” Dungee said. “I’m happy that I got this win. I always wrestle [Sullivan] and it’s an exciting match each time. I have a ton of respect for that kid. I just wanted to wrestle smart on the bottom and to take this tournament one match at a time.

I just wanted another shot at [Sullivan] because he beat me a couple of weeks ago. We go back forth every match. It’s awesome, I love it.”

Morristown’s Desmond Towns also placed, finishing second overall after losing to Jefferson’s Mike Monarque, 11-3, in the finals.

Five first place finishes helped lead Delbarton to the overall team title for the third straight year as they amassed 206 points, followed by Montville (160), Boonton (132), Pequannock (127) and Jefferson (124).

“It’s such a great tournament with such great competition, such great coaches and such great wrestlers,” Stoll said. “To come away with a win, it’s a great feeling. To win it three years in a row, it’s obviously very satisfying.”