When two talented, well-coached teams like Ridge High and Watchung Hills face-off in a fencing duel, the only expectation is that it could go either way. On Thursday, it looked that way for much of the afternoon for both the boys and girls meets.

In the end, though, it was Ridge that was able to ride strong performances from some of its top fencers to sweep the dual meet. The Red Devils boys won 15-12, while the girls won only slightly more decisively, 16-11.

“This year, the Watchung Hills team is much stronger,” said Ridge head boys coach Slava Danylov. “They’ve got a very good Epee team, and a couple guys in the Foil and Sabre who are also very good. After the first round, we took it back.”

The Ridge boys edged Watchung Hills in all three weapons, 5-4, but got key performances out of Epeeists Connor Pelos, who finished the day 2-0, and Matthew Yin, who came back from a frustrating loss in his second bout of the day to clinch the meet for the Red Devils.

On the girls’ side, fellow squad captains Sarah Jones (Epee) and Claire Olczak (Foil) got big wins for the Red Devils. However, the Watchung Hills girls stayed neck-and-neck with the Red Devils until the third round of bouts, where Ridge was able to clinch at a score of 14-10.

In both meets, Watchung Hills had some standout performances of their own. Junior Epeeist Eric Gardner went 1-1 on the day for the boys, and senior Epeeist Shanna Whelan won convincingly in her first round bout to give the Warrior girls some early momentum to keep pace with Ridge.

Despite losing the dual meet to Ridge, Gardner insisted that both Watchung Hills teams are staying upbeat for their next challenge.

“As a team, we put so much spirit into it that I can’t ask for more,” said Gardner. “Of course, we have a lot to work on in practice and we’re definitely going to make sure that we perfect those little mistakes we made today.”

As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, and Gardner believes that will hold true for Watchung Hills.

“We’ll just take home what we messed up here, work from there and we’ll win all the time,” said Gardner.

Both Ridge teams will step right back into action on Friday when they travel to Morris Hills High School before the girls take part in Saturday’s Santelli Tournament at Voorhees High School. As for Watchung Hills, both Warrior teams will be in action on Saturday; the girls will also be participating in the Santelli Tournament, while the boys will play host to Governor Livingston High School.