PISCATAWAY — Instead of savoring every second of his final time on the wrestling mats at the Rutgers Athletic Center, Phil Bakuckas seemed to be in a rush to say goodbye.
After losing his spot in the starting dual lineup to Jordan Pagano last month, Bakuckas got the call on Senior Day and rewarded coach Scott Goodale’s sentimental side with one of the most dominant performances of his career.
With university president Robert Barchi sitting mat-side and aided by crutches, Bakuckas earned an extremely rare first-period technical fall that fit with how Rutgers manhandled Northwestern all match on the way to a 28-6 victory in the regular-season finale.
Rutgers (12-4, 6-3) finished with its best conference dual record over its first three seasons in the Big Ten, improving on a 5-4 mark from last season. The Scarlet Knights opened the match with five straight victories and 17 points until a name familiar to the crowd stopped the run.
The fast start wasn’t a surprise considering Rutgers stacked three nationally ranked wrestlers in the first half of its lineup — No. 5 Anthony Ashnault, No. 14 Ken Theobold and No. 18 John Van Brill — and Northwestern (7-8, 2-7) countered with one wrestler who had a winning record.
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Of the four New Jersey natives on Northwestern’s roster, only two wrestled in their homecoming.
Demarest’s Anthony Rubinetti suffered a 4-2 loss at 125, while Bergen Catholic’s Johnny Sebastian — a three-time NJSIAA high school state champion — cruised to a 17-3 victory at 165.
Rubinetti and Brandon Paetzell were locked in a 2-2 tie until Paetzell beat the clock with a takedown inside of five seconds remaining.
The South Plainfield duo of Scott DelVecchio and Ashnault scored back-to-back wins worth a combined eight points to put Rutgers ahead 11-0.
DelVecchio just missed a major decision (11-4), while Ashnault earned a 21-6 technical fall by getting a takedown with 36 seconds left in the third period.
Thebold spent more than four minutes — a dominant amount of time in a seven-minute match — riding Shayne Oster en route to a 10-3 decision, and Van Brill added a 7-2 decision.
If losing five straight wasn’t insult enough for Northwestern, the Wildcats were docked a point during intermission for flagrant misconduct.
So when Sebastian earned his major decision over Anthony Pafumi, Northwestern only received three points.
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By scoring 16 points in the first period, Bakuckas made short work of the winless Braxton Cody, who fell to 0-11 at 174 pounds. The Hammonton native and three-year starter prior to Pagano’s emergence improved to 12-6 during his redshirt senior season.
After Nick Gravina made it seven wins in eight bouts for Rutgers by winning 4-0 at 184, Matt Correnti nearly stole an upset at 197. Correnti, a true freshman, led 20-win redshirt senior Jacob Berkowitz late in the period period but allowed a two-point reversal and lost 5-3.
Razohnn Gross, who is close to earning the nickname of Mr. Overtime, saw another of his matches extend beyond the first minutes. A 1-1 tie — Gross earned his point with a riding time advantage — was snapped when Gross scored a reversal and held top position for the final 30 seconds of a 3-2 decision.
As the final horn sounded, Goodale met Gross on the mat and the excited heavyweight tried to jump into his coach’s arms, but wound up putting him in an overjoyed headlock.
Ryan Dunleavy may be reached at rdunleavy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @rydunleavy. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.
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