Crown Point Makes Early Season Statement against Merrillville

Crown Point, IN-

IndianaMat.com's #3 ranked Crown Point Bulldogs took on the #8 Merrillville Pirates Wednesday night at home in a battle for 'Region' supremacy.  The dual started at 145 with Merrillville grabbing an early 3-0 lead via a Keon Jones decision over Tommy Renn of Crown Point.  Crown Point quickly regained the lead 4-3 with a major decision at 152, and they would never trail again the rest of the night.  Mark Myers, ranked 2^nd by IndianaMat at 160, extended Crown Point's lead to 9-3 with a technical fall.  Merrillville's freshman sensation Kourtney Berry then won a 9-2 decision at 171 to pull the Pirates back within 3.  IndianaMat's top ranked 189 pounder, Marcus Shrewsbury, registered a quick fall at 189, and Crown Point's 12^th ranked 215 pounder James Bakalik followed that up with a decision to give Crown Point an 18-6 advantage.  Merrillville's 10^th ranked heavyweight James Travis showed off his powerful double leg and earned a 1^st period fall to draw Merrillville back within 6 at the halfway point of the dual.  In one of the night's most anticipated contests, the 103 pound match, Merrillville junior Zac Stevens, a state qualifier last year at 103 and currently ranked 4^th by IndianaMat, came out and hit nice firemans carry to jump out to an early 2-0 lead over Crown Point's 11^th ranked freshman Cameron Halsted.  After a scramble in which Halsted was able to finish a single leg position and earn a reversal, the match was tied at 2 with 40 seconds to go in the first period.  Halsted immediately threw legs in on Stevens and was working for a power half when Stevens was able to tripod up and get Halsted high.  Stevens reached up and grabbed Halsted's head and pulled him over the top for the defensive fall with 13 seconds to go in the 1^st period.   This fall at 103 unexpectedly tied the match at 18-18 with 6 bouts to go.  At 112 lbs., IndianaMat's top ranked Anthony Hawkins earned a technical fall for Crown Point to give the Bulldogs a 23-18 advantage.  At 119 lbs., Merrillville senior Willy Costakis gave Crown Point's 14^th ranked Josh Manes all he could handle, but dropped a 1-0 decision on a Manes escape in the 3^rd period.  This win gave Crown Point a 26-18 lead.  The best match of the night came at 125 pounds where #2 ranked Crown Point freshman Jason Tsirtsis faced off against 4^th ranked Anthony Napules of Merrillville.  Tsirtsis wore on Napules' head and neck with heavy hands for the first minute and a half of the match and forced Napules into a bad shot late in the first period which he capitalized on with a head in the hole front headlock and was able to score a questionable takedown with little time left in the first period, much to Merrillville head coach Dave Maldonado's displeasure.  Coach Maldonado argued that Tsirtsis never secured the takedown as Napules quickly stood up and Tsirtsis dropped to a single as he was awarded the 2 and hung onto the leg until the clock expired on the first period of action.   Tsirtsis chose down in the 2^nd period and made the score 3-0 with a quick escape via a standup off the whistle.  Napules was the aggressor on their feet in the second period and although there were no points scored for the remainder of the period, Tsirtsis was warned for stalling.  Napules chose down in the 3^rd period and was able to create a scramble as Tsirtsis threw legs in and get 1 for the escape.  Napules continued to push the pace and was awarded a point to make the match 3-2 with a minute left on Tsirtsis' second stall call.  With under 30 seconds left in the match, Tsirtsis got in a deep high crotch, but Napules brought him into a crackdown position and was beginning to scoot around the corner and looked as if he was going to score the go-ahead takedown.  Tsirtsis was able to readjust, duck the leg, and come out the back door to secure the takedown with under ten seconds to go to make the final score 5-2 in Tsirtsis' favor.  This win gave Crown Point a 29-18 lead with 3 bouts to go.  At 130 pounds, unranked Frankie Valdivia from Merrillville earned an upset victory for Merrillville over previously 5^th ranked Dallas Schurg of Crown Point.  With the score tied 2-2 in the second period, Valdivia put Schurg to his back with a very tight cement mixer and was able to secure the fall with one minute to go in the 2^nd period to draw Merrillville back within 5.  IndianaMat's top ranked 135 pounder, sophomore Eric Roach of Crown Point, earned a technical fall to seal the win for Crown Point.  Although the dual was already won, those that stayed were treated to a mild upset at 140 pounds.  Unranked Merrillville senior Darrius Richmond put on a dominating performance against previously 14^th ranked Josh Flamme of Crown Point.  Richmond used a pair of takedowns and a pair of reversals to defeat Flamme by a score of 8-4.  After 14 exciting bouts of Duneland Athletic Conference action, the Crown Point Bulldogs defeated the Merrillville Pirates 34-27.  This match turned out to be a lot closer than expected, as many messageboard posters predicted Crown Point to win easily.  These two programs have definitely separated themselves from the rest of the 'Region', and a rematch with a trip to Team State on the line should be in the works in early February.  Although this was just a 7 point match with a pair of closely-contested swing matches at 119 and 125 which went Crown Point's way, I think that it is important to note that the matches at 103 and 130 were won by Merrillville by fall, which I don't see happening again.  Both of these matches were between state-ranked caliber kids and were both tied matches at the time of the unexpected falls. The 12 points earned by Merrillville in these two weight classes could easily become decisions for Crown Point next time around.  Merrillville had almost everything go their way Wednesday night that possibly could have, and still came up short.  For this reason I don't like their chances in a rematch, although neither did anyone at the Team Semi-State last year, and Coach Maldonado still found a way to get the job done!  In the rematch with a trip to Center Grove on the line I will take Crown Point, again, 36-21.

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