It was a weekend with some eye-opening results, including Mercer County’s first win ever against Hunterdon Central when Notre Dame beat the Red Devils on Saturday. It was also a weekend with considerable sadness following the death of the legendary Denny D’Andrea, a former coach at a number of Shore Conference schools who had an infectious personality and was a great ambassador for the sport. D’Andrea, who died on Saturday at the age of 74, had considerable success building up the Manalapan program among his earlier accomplishments.  Although he later was also the head coach at St. John Vianney, he is perhaps best known as the ace assistant and sidekick for Tony “The Italian Stallion” Caravella at Brick Memorial. During D’Andrea’s 22 years with the Memorial program, the Mustangs won five group championships and 12 Shore Conference Tournament titles.In 1986 Brick Memorial was named the No. 1 team in the state following a 35-10 triumph over Ralph “The Renegade” Ross’ Highland team in the Group 3 final.  In 1994 Brick Memorial received the No. 1 nod again after one of the most famous matches in New Jersey history in which it beat Phillipsburg, 32-28, on a pin at heavyweight in “The PIt.” Those are just some of his accomplishments. There also was the matter of who he was as a person and his unending desire to promote the sport for hours on end. “I don’t think anyone loved wrestling more than Denny,” said Caravella in a published report over the weekend. “He not only put his heart and soul into it, but he made numerous contributions monetarily that people don’t even know about. If there was a kid who couldn’t get into college, he’d help pay his way. If a kid had a hard-luck story and he read about it in the papers, he’d send him a check.” While being very well aware of who D’Andrea was over the years, it wasn’t until recently that the opportunity came along to really get to know him when he would call on the phone. Despite the fact he was not in good health, the result was numerous conversations and an enjoyable sharing of opinions on all things wrestling. He truly was one of a kind and already sorely missed. Times Are a Changin’ It really is amazing how results continue to come in that would have been regarded as inconceivable in the past. On the immediate local front, there was Notre Dame’s one-point victory over Hunterdon Central. “Our kids wrestled tough,” said Notre Dame coach E.J. Nemeth, who is doing a solid job building up the Irish program that would have been a much more formidable force this season if it hadn’t lost two very capable upperweights for the year to injury. “I let (Gary) Dambro know and he said he was happy to hear it.” Dambro, who no longer lives in this area, coached Notre Dame for over 40 years and was a wrestler for Hunterdon Central, which withdrew from a Brick Memorial quad on Saturday in order to go to Notre Dame. This came after Central called off a home match earlier in the week against Delaware Valley on the grounds there was some kind of water issue at its school. It should be pointed out technically this was not Mercer’s first win against the Hunterdon school. The exact details are a little hazy because it happened so long ago, but Hunterdon Central once had to forfeit a match to Jimmy “Super Fly” Mansfield’s Lawrence team after beating the Cardinals on the mat. What happened there was Hunterdon Central was caught reporting fake names from match results in an attempt to pile up the wins while using wrestlers who were exceeding their bout limits. It does make you wonder how many other of Hunterdon Central’s multitude of wins were not legitimate.Hunterdon Central is now 2-10 and with more losses on the horizon is clearly going to have just its second losing season in its 69th year of wrestling. The first was in 2006 when it went 12-13. If it’s any consolation to Red Devil fans, your team is not the only one that  has fallen on hard times. Paulsboro is 6-6 and just lost to Collingswood and Audubon, which is also in S.J. Group I. Jackson Memorial, which was in a group final just two years ago, is 5-11 and has taken some gruesome beatings. AREA UPDATE There will be a lot more on this as the season goes along, but it’s a big week in the Colonial Valley Conference. On Tuesday Hopewell Valley will host Robbinsville with the CVC Valley Division title on the line. This upcoming weekend the CVC Tournament will be held for boys and girls at Robbinsville. The boys will wrestle Friday and Saturday and the girls will just wrestle Saturday. Although Hopewell Valley is expected to beat Robbinsville in the duel match, it is even a bigger favorite to win the CVC tournament that is in reality just the old Mercer County Tournament under a different name. As such, Hopewell is aiming to win it for the 15th time in 17 years. Keep in mind the cutoff for the sectionals is now just two weeks ago. The CVC will again be well represented, including a Hightstown team that still sits atop the Central Jersey Group 4 Field. As is so often the case, the biggest threat to go the distance is Group 1 Delaware Valley. which has rebounded nicely from its tough loss to North Hunterdon and beat formerly undefeated Caldwell on Saturday. TRENTONIAN STATE TOP 10 (Public Schools Only) 1. Southern (8-1) 2. Delsea (14-1) 3. Phillipsburg  (9-0) 4. Rumson-Fair Haven  (12-1) 5. Mt. Olive (10-3) 6. Brick Memorial (10-2) 7. Cranford (11-2) 8. Delaware Valley (9-2) 9. North Hunterdon (6-4) 10. Caldwell (10-1) TRENTONIAN AREA WRESTLING TOP 10 1. Delaware Valley (9-2) 2. North Hunterdon (6-4) 3. Hopewell Valley (14-1) 4. Seneca (11-2) 5. Lenape (9-1) 6. Northern Burlington (7-6) 7. Robbinsville (12-6) 8. Hightstown (11-4) 9. Rancocas Valley (13-3); 10. Steinert (7-6) 10. Allentown (10-4) HIGHLIGHT MATCHES Tuesday: Robbinsville at Hopewell Valley. Wednesday; Hightstown at Allentown, Delaware Valley at Ridge. Friday: CVC Tourney at Robbinsville; Saturday: CVC Tourney at Robbinsville.