Council Rock South finished second and Pennridge captured fourth at Saturday’s District Duals. Both teams will advance to the State Duals.
CR SOUTH AND PENNRIDGE ADVANCE TO STATE DUALS
By Glenn Kaiser
Although the PAC 10 got the best of the SOL on Saturday at the District One Team Championships, it was bittersweet as both Council Rock South and Pennridge advanced to the PIAA (AAA) Team Championships. Both teams will compete on Monday in the preliminary round of the state duals. CRS dropped a hard fought battle in the finals to Boyertown, 34-26, to finish in second place and will host District 12’s runner-up, Father Judge on Monday.
Meanwhile, an undermanned Pennridge team finished fourth after falling to Spring-Ford 39-25 and will travel to Central Dauphin, the District 3 runner-up, Monday night to open the prelims. Both matches will start at 7:00pm.
Pennridge had to advance through the rough road in the consolation bracket, facing an experienced Downingtown East team in the consi semifinals Saturday afternoon. Fortunately for the Rams, the hard work and endless training under the guidance of Head Coach RP Norley resulted in a 36-28 victory for the Ridge.
The Rams, without standout Kordell Rush at 113, managed to send home the Ches-Mont’s best team with a tremendous effort from its seniors. Zach Tuerke got things going at 182 pounds after Kyle Gentile received a forfeit at 170, notching his third win of the tournament over another top-ranked District One opponent in Alec Horne, 4-1. Tuerke, who battled through pain from an ongoing shoulder problem, set the stage for four senior wrestlers in the Rams lineup to garner victories in the upper weights. Andrew Reinhold followed with bonus points at 195, dispatching of Brent Czajkowski 14-2. Ezra Outlaw was next up with a hard fought 3-1 decision over DTE’s Nik Zimmerman. And then heavy Joe Kracz majored Owen Morris for bonus points (8-0), putting the Rams ahead 24-16 with the #2 ranked wrestler in the state at 106, Matt Parker, on deck. Parker decked Brett Horne in 1:09 of the first period to push the Rams lead to 30-16 and basically seal the deal for the Rams.
Although, the Cougars from Downingtown East posted two falls at 113 and 120 to make the score 30-28 heading into the final bout of the dual, freshman Micah Visuwan - no longer hiding in the shadows - decked Harris Alliger in 1:32 to stamp Pennridge’s ticket to the PIAA Team Championships. Tuerke, who wrestled at Hatboro-Horsham a year ago, said after the match that he overcame the pain and numbness of his shoulder to get the victory for the team. And with Rush out due to an injury suffered Friday night, it was the kind of effort needed for the Rams to advance.
Council Rock South - somewhat banged up with wear and tear of a grueling schedule - was worthy to face off with mighty Boyertown in the finals. However, Boyertown was able to win the closely contested bouts in this roller coaster match. As always in wrestling, unexpected events occurred throughout the match. At one point, CRS had a 15-10 lead after the first five contested bouts. With the match starting at 138, the Golden Hawks fell behind 10-0 until Lucas Martoccio took to the mat at 152 and decked Elijah Jones with his patented cross-face cradle. Martoccio clearly was battling through an elbow injury, as he was seen icing it down following the match. Dylan Schwartz triumphed at 160 over Dylan Wertz 13-7 as he pushed for bonus points on his feet until the final buzzer. Joe Doyle then followed up with a sudden injury default victory at 170 that put the Golden Hawks in the lead 15-10. However, in the critical swing bout at 195 between South’s Ben Kenis and the Bears’ Gregg Harvey, the momentum shifted after Harvey executed a pair of takedowns in the third period to win 8-7 and put a stop to the Golden Hawks fury.
And with the return of Jordan Wood for Boyertown at 220, the Bears pushed ahead with a 12-second fall by Wood. With the balance of the match’s outcome on the line, South’s lightweight tandem of Riley Palmer (106) and Ben Radner (113) stepped up to narrow the lead to 25-23 with only three bouts remaining. Radner, only a freshman, turned away the Bears’ David Campbell with a masterful 6-3 decision. At 126 pounds with South trailing 28-23, Zack Trampe took to the mat and negated talented Bear Lucas Miller from joining the 100-Win Club with a wild 4-3 victory that put South in the lead 28-26. But with CR South out of ammunition, Boyertown’s J.T. Cooley prevented the Golden Hawks from pulling off the upset with a pin fall over Robbie Fascioccio in just 50 seconds, ending the match with Boyertown the victors with a 34-26 win.
In the consolation final for third place, Spring-Ford got off to a strong start against Pennridge, posting an 18-0 lead through the first four bouts. But as they have done all season, the Rams clawed back with their upper weights to narrow the score at 18-14 heading to the heavyweights. And surprisingly, the Rams Joe Kracz came up just short in an overtime loss to Spring-Ford Ram Zach Dorsey 3-2 at 285, which may have been the bout that propelled Spring-Ford to the win. Despite bonus point wins by Kyle Gentile at 170 and Ezra Outlaw at 220, who both posted major decisions, and identical 2-1 victories by Zach Tuerke at 182 and Andrew Reinhold (195) sandwiched in between, it was not enough to overtake the lead. Matt Parker got the Rams to within one point after a first period fall at 106 with a tight arm bar to make the score 21-20. However, Spring-Ford shut down Pennridge in the next three matches, posting three six-pointers to capture third place with the 39-25 win.
It was an exciting two days of wrestling at Upper Dublin High School during the District One Team Championships. And it is off to the next level for South and Pennridge with their Herculean efforts.
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