Who: No. 5 Paramus vs. No. 4 Pascack Valley 

What: North 1, Group 3 Sectional Quarterfinals

When: Monday, Feb. 10, 6 p.m.

Where: Pascack Valley

The Lowdown: These two teams faced one another on Jan. 18 with Pascack Valley defeating Paramus 39-30. This match was tight and came down to the last weight class where PV was able to edge out Paramus. 

“There’s definitely a lot of good matchups within this match,” coach Tom Gallione said. “There are also a lot of 50/50 matches that you can’t predict who’s going to win those matchups.”

The biggest challenge that Pascack Valley will have to face is the consensus No. 1 wrestler in the state for the 220-pound weight class, Kyle Jacob. The Spartan senior, who is also a football standout, was state runner-up at 195 pounds a year ago. 

Last time these two teams met, there were five matches that were decided by five points or less. The Indians edged out the Spartans in three out of the five matches. 

“The team that wins more of those 50/50 matches is going to come out on top,” Gallione said

The winner of the match will likely face top seeded Montville (11-2), the number 18 team in the state according to NJ.com. The Mustangs are lead by their middle and upper weights including Noah Fox (170) and Michael Conrad (182).

“Fortunately we wrestled Montville last year and they had a lot of the same guys back,” Gallione said. “I will look at that film from last year, I look at the box scores and throughout the year I always look at everybody in our group and see how they wrestled against common opponents.”

The Indians have faced several teams in their bracket. They have faced Sparta, Paramus, Tenafly ,and River Dell. Against Sparta, the final score was 35-34, with the Spartans coming out on top. Against Tenafly, the final score was 60-12 with the Indians emerging victorious. When the Indians faced River Dell, the final score was 33-25 with River Dell taking home the victory.