Half of River Dell’s starting lineup is made up of freshmen and sophomores. But the Golden Hawks are wrestling nothing like a team that young.
“It’s nice to see that everything is rolling in the right direction,” said coach Mike Tota, whose team is 11-0 after suffering through a sub-.500 season a year ago. “The freshmen have come in and given us a big boost, and the seniors are providing a lot of leadership.”
The Hawks got things going full steam with a huge 32-31 victory over Mahwah on Jan. 14.
“That was a great win for our program,” Tota said. “Everybody did a great job, and it said a lot about our junior program.”
In the last week, they’ve added wins over Westwood, Hackensack, Hasbrouck Heights/Wood-Ridge and Lyndhurst/North Arlington. And it continues with tough Pascack Valley tonight, Ramsey on Friday and a quad with Glen Rock/Saddle Brook, Ramapo and Fair Lawn on Saturday.
“We’re going to learn a lot about ourselves this week,” Tota said.
And a lot about a young core group.
Freshmen Danny Lynch (11-2, 103 pounds), D.J. Tirelli (9-3, 112), Cenzo Cariddi (13-4, 125) and Tyler Kallensee (5-4, 145) have provided a big boost for the Hawks. Captains Zach Deckler (11-5, 140), Ricky Rizzo (11-4, 160) and Lenny Smith (10-4, 189) provide the leadership.
The Hawks also were buoyed this week by the return of sophomore Nick Baranello, who is 11-3 at 140 after sitting out parts of this month with an injury suffered in the BCCA Holiday Tournament and then an illness.