Thursday night, the Green Knights punched their ticket to the State finals for the third straight year by defeating St. Peters Prep 39-21.

The match started at 150 pounds, and the Green Knights started slow, dropping 150 and 157 pounds by pins and 165 pounds by an 8-2 decision to fall behind 15-0. However, a Ryan Burton pin at 175 pounds gave the Green Knights 6 points and cut the lead to 15-6. However, Kaleb Jackson lost to Anthony Verdi in the following match at 190 pounds by a sudden victory of 3-2 which cost SJR 3 points.

Down 18-6, the Green Knights needed a big performance at 215 pounds from Anthony Harris to flip the script on this dual, and they got just that. Harris pinned his opponent in the first period to cut the lead in half and make the score 18-12.

The win for Harris was a pivotal one for the Green Knights as it kicked off a 7 match winning streak.

"We lost a big match the match before and my pin helped us swing the momentum to our was," said Harris

"We won 6 straight matches so I think it was huge for the team and the momentum."

The next 2 matches at 285 and 106 were crucial ones as 2nd-ranked Christian Alvarez beat 7th-ranked Connor Reynolds in a close 4-0 victory, and JoJo Burke won by a first-period pin.

One of the most entertaining and pivotal matches came at 113 pounds. With just five seconds left, 2nd-ranked Charlie Esposito was tied 1-1 with 3rd-ranked Robby Rodgriguez. Esposito got a huge take down with 5 seconds remaining and won the match 4-1.

"I almost got it in the first period and I knew I needed to take him down and I kept getting to the same shot and I knew at one point I needed to finish it," said Esposito.

"I needed to do it for the team it wasn't just about me but I came here today with one goal and I achieved that."

With the score 24-18 in favor of SJR, the Green Knights needed to keep the train on track and finish the match strong. At 120 pounds, Jonathan McGinty pinned Anthony Borrometi, giving SJR 6 points.

At 126 pounds, Mikey Bautista was losing 3-0 at the end of the first period, but in the second period, he tied it up with a take down, however, the score did not change for the final period and the match was sent to overtime. Both Bautista and Anthony Borrometi kept battling it out for four more periods until Bautista got a critical escape which resulted to a 4-3 sudden victory.

"As soon as I got that escape I was super pumped up and I was just really excited for my team and getting that win." said Bautista

With the score 33-18 and 3 matches to go, Vincent Paino was up and got a huge 5-4 decision victory. During his match, at the start of the 3rd period with stakes as high as they could be, Head Coach Tom Farinaro yelled "Win this Period, Win this Period" to the senior and he did just that to lock up the win.

"When we got to his match, if Vinny (Paino) won, then the match would be over score-wise," said Farinaro

"He got taken down early in the match and was down 3-0 from then we wanted to build the lead, and once we got into that second period, we wanted to win that period, which Paino did, and when we got to the third period we wanted to win that final period so we would win the match."

The next match at 138 the Green Knights dropped and Ryan Mitchell had a close 4-2 decision over Laudan Henry who is the 8th ranked 144 pounder in the state to close out the dual and give the Green Knights a 39-21 win with a trip to Rutgers.

On Sunday the Green Knights will be seeing a familiar face as they will square off against defending state champion Delbarton, a team they lost to a year ago and who they beat 2 years ago.

When it comes to preparing for the state championship, the teams goal is to have the same preparation they've had all year.

"We are going to do the same thing we've been doing, getting back in the room and keep training the horse." said Coach Farinaro.

In the trilogy vs Delbarton, the Green Knights even up with the Green Wave with both teams having 10 ranked wrestlers in the top 8.

"In that dual it is the match ups, we have to do the same thing we did tonight. We've got to win the toss up matches," said the SJR coach.

"There's going to be matches where we're favored and they're favored but really the battle in that match are the tossup matches we have to win and limit the bonus points from Delbarton."

The Green Knights will face Delbarton on Sunday at 2:30 at Jersey Mike's Arena.  Fans can purchase tickets for the state championship here: https://scarletknights.evenue.net/events/HSWR