2008 Woodie Awards
Wrestling crushes non-conference opposition
By Travis Pickens
Rocket Contributor
Issue date: 12/9/05 Section: Sports
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Despite close scores in most of the matches, the Rock was dominant throughout. Jason Cardillo posted the most convincing decision with his technical fall win over Bo Morrell. Cardillo was ahead, 21-6, when the match was called in the third round. A wrestler is awarded a technical fall when leading by 15 points.
"Before each match I tell Jason that every match that he wrestles, he's one match closer to the end of his career," coach Derek DelPorto said. "When you tell a kid that and when that kid realizes that, he knows that he has to go out there and set a precedent."
Against Thiel (3-2), Cardillo didn't have to set much of a standard as the Rock was ahead, 16-0, entering his match. Despite his team's advantage, Cardillo wasted little time disposing of Morrell. The senior captain found himself ahead, 10-3, after two rounds before picking up the five team points for the technical fall.
"Jason put an exclamation point on what this team's all about," DelPorto said. "I was impressed with Jason. He certainly has his game-face on and I'm glad he does because when he goes out and wins like that, the rest of our team wants to do that."
The Rock (3-3) wasted little time pulling away. Shawn Baglio picked up a major decision and Garry Price controlled Bryan Pleskovich for a 5-0 win before Cardillo's domination.
"Our first three matches, we looked terrible," DelPorto said of his team, which started with losses to Edinboro, Maryland and Old Dominion. "We looked out of shape and we're not out of shape, we're in great shape."
Charlie Pienaar took the mat after Cardillo and pinned Andrew Riddle with 1:21 left in the third round. At the time of the pin fall, Pienaar led, 13-2.
Thiel's coach, Craig Thurber, said he wouldn't use the different levels the teams compete on as an excuse.
"I don't really look at it as Division I, II or III," Thurber said. "We train everyday to wrestle with everybody, and obviously coach DelPorto has a nice team down here and we came in with a lot of freshmen today. We don't look at divisions too much."
