By Alex Frazier
“It doesn’t get much funner than that.”
Those words from a coach whose team lost one of its biggest matches of the year.
Win or lose Council Rock South coach Brad Silimperi always displays class.
The District One Class AAA Dual Meet Championship came down to the very last bout Monday night at Pottstown, and the Golden Hawks came up a bit short against an excellent Boyertown team.
The Bears took on the entire Council Rock School District, dispatching C.R. North 48-18 in the semifinals and then rallied from a 31-18 deficit to clip the Hawks, 38-35 in the final heavyweight bout.
“That’s what high school athletics is all about,” said Silimperi. “It’s the epitome of what a high school wrestling match should be. Two teams going after it and fighting and anything can happen. I’m extremely pleased with our guys. We’re missing two starters (Dylan Wiltrout and Shane Gilmore), and it came down to the last bout. I never like to lose, but the way our guys battled - I’m very pleased.”
In the consolation finals match, Rock North avenged its loss to Boyertown by defeating West Chester Rustin 30-27, in a bout that came down to the second to last match.
In Class AA Springfield made its first-ever appearance in the championship match, but didn’t have enough to get by two-time defending champion Octorara, falling to the Braves, 47-24.
“They’re a top, top-notch team and my guys didn’t back down,” said coach Corey McCaslin. “They came out here to win this. They’re a bit disappointed now that they didn’t, and that’s what we want.”
McCaslin was particularly pleased with the effort of Dylan Evans (two pins), Michael Honeywell (a decision and a forfeit), and freshman Jake McGregor, who bumped up to 125 to get a pin against Octorara.
The Spartans reached the finals by defeating Lower Moreland, 46-21.
“They’re really turning into a team,” said McCaslin. “We started the year with a lot of athletes. Now we have a lot of wrestlers.”
In a surprising development, Upper Moreland forfeited to Boyertown in the quarterfinals because 189-pounder James Nicholson was diagnosed with mat herpes Monday afternoon. At the strong urging of PIAA officials, Upper Moreland coach Stefan Muller took his team out of contention in the interest of all the kids participating.
In other quarterfinal action, Norristown lost to Rustin 37-18. The Eagles surged to a 9-0 lead but then lost the next six straight before Brett Harner and Brandon Parker stopped the bleeding momentarily. Unfortunately, Rustin won the last four bouts to eliminate the Eagles.
“We had great hopes that we would beat them,” said Parker. “This brought us back to reality.”
Norristown had placed ahead of Rustin at the Octorara Tournament, which might have given the Eagles unfounded confidence.
“It shows that individual tournaments are different from team tournaments,” said Parker.
Council Rock South had a couple of excellent wins against a tough Boyertown squad. Connor Moore gave the Hawks some crucial bonus points at 130 when he nailed Boyertown’s Peter Jones in a double bar arm for the fall with time expiring.
A match every fan would have liked to see never transpired. When the Hawks put Josh Dziewa out on the mat at 135, Boyertown ducked him by moving their stud Alex Pellicciotti up to 140. The Hawks countered by pushing Matt Martoccio to 145.
Both Dziewa and Pellicciotti pinned.
Jon Neuman nearly stuck Martoccio in the first period, but the Hawk grappler rallied to win 11-8.
Another key match for South came at 152, where Tim Riley caught Adam Benefield in a headlock and pinned him in 2:59.
“He had a nice day today with two big pins,” said Silimperi. “He’s really doing a nice job.”
The outcome eventually hinged on heavyweight Tom Trampe. South led 35-32 heading into the final bout.
Trampe was caught in a headlock in both the first and second periods and managed to escape, but not so in the third period as Ryan Schwager made sure the third time wasn’t the charm.
“We had to win one or two at the end and we didn’t,” said Silimperi.
Council Rock North faced a scrappy Rustin team that handled Norristown before losing to Rock South 36-24 in the semifinals.
“That’s a good team,” said North coach Tom Vivacqua. “We didn’t wrestle our best match against them, but we wrestled good enough. Sometimes it’s just about winning.”
A key bout came at 152 where Greg Lanctot took Tyler Wood down with 35 seconds left to go up 5-3. Wood escaped, but Lanctot held on for the 5-4 win.
“I hurt my knee and I’ve been out for a couple of weeks,” said Lanctot. “My conditioning is not that good right now. I was a little sloppy, but a win is a win. I gave away a reversal at the end of the first period, but I had confidence I could win that match.”
Ultimately, 215-pounder Jamie Callender put the match away for the Indians, pinning Luke McGreavy in 1:25. It was his second fall of the night. Against Boyertown, he bumped up to heavyweight to pin Boyertown’s Schwager in a scant 35 seconds.
Ironically, Rock North defeated Boyertown by a point in the Bear Duals earlier in the season. But the team the Indians faced Monday was a different one.
“They came more ready to wrestle than we did,” said Lanctot. “I look back at that and I am pretty surprised that they’re such a good team and we beat them.”
“They’re a physical, tough team,” said Vivacqua. “We didn’t match up well with them.”
The PIAA State Dual Meet Tournament begins Tuesday evening, weather permitting. Council Rock North will be traveling to Hanover Area High School near Wilkes Barre to take on Hazelton, a team the Indians beat last year.
“Our goal is to make it to Saturday,” said Vivacqua. “We haven’t made it to Saturday yet.”
Catholic League champ LaSalle will wrestle Public League champion George Washington at 4:30 p.m. at Methacton to decide the District 12 champion, and the winner will wrestle Rock South at 6. The winner of that match will advance to the state quarterfinals Friday at the Giant Center in Hershey.
“We’ll be ready when it counts,” said Silimperi. “We’ve had our hopes broken here in the past, and we seem to wrestle better when that happens.”
Boyertown 38, Council Rock South 35
103—Billy Rappo (CRS) pinned Austin Mutter, 1:35
112—Adam Kolb (B) pinned Trey Bolasco, 5:15
119—Matt Malfaro (B) pinned Ian Krouse, 2:15
125—Matt Rappo (CRS) major dec. Jeremy Minnich, 18-6
130—Connor Moore (CRS) pinned Peter Jones, 5:59
135—Josh Dziewa (CRS) pinned David Waight, 3:50
140—Alex Pellicciotti (B) pinned Brian Greco, 1:03
145—Matt Martoccio (CRS) dec. Jon Neiman, 11-8
152—Tim Riley (CRS) pinned Adam Benefield, 2:59
160—Luke Hoffman (B) pinned Austin Reichenbach, 3:33
171—Bobby Lavelle (CRS) major dec. Brock Hellman, 15-6
189—Tyler Mauger (B) major dec. Mike Bennett, 16-8
215—Zach Heffner (B) major dec. Tom Dingui, 12-2
285—Ryan Schwager (B) pinned Tom Trampe, 4:40
Council Rock North 30, West Chester Rustin 27
103—Corey McQuiston (WCR) pinned Sean O’Neill, 1:01
112—John Dutrow (CRN) tech fall Evan Harkins 4:53
119—Shane Longstreth (CRN) major dec. Derek Rothermal, 9-1
125—Codi Rothermal (WCR) dec. Adam Slezak. 7-3
130—Allan Slezak (CRN) dec. Steven Quinn, 9-3
135—Hayden Schenker (CRN) dec. Eric Shaw, 4-2
140—Anthony Dutrow (CRN) pinned Tyler Hollenbach, 4:37
145—Greg Turston (WCR) dec. James Hollawell, 5-3
152—Greg Lanctot (CRN) dec. Tyler Wood, 5-4
160—Kyle Hoch (WCR) pinned Andrew DiSpirito, 1:14
171—John Hoch (WCR) major dec. James Kelly, 13-2
189—Kyle Wood (WCR) dec. Joe Coates, 6-4
215—Jamie Callender (CRN) pinned Luke McGreavy, 1:25
285—Curtis Riddle (WCR) dec. Stephen Kaschak, 8-7 OT
Octorara 47, Springfield 24
103—Richard Kassabian (S) won by forfeit
112—Bo Johnstone (O) major dec. Zach McGregor, 13-1
119—Brandon Arnsberger (O) pinned Brad Ellis, 1:21
125—Jake McGregor (S) pinned Steve Toscani, 2:37
130—Josh Bowman (O) dec. Rob Galdo, 6-3
135—Mike Blankley (O) tech fall Skylar Schmidt, 19-2
140—Tyler Helms (O) tech fall Adrian Wint, 19-1
145—Dan Miller (O) pinned Jacob Gakovsky, :44
152—Michael Honeywell (S) dec. Zach Gregor, 5-3
160—Kyle Jackson (S) dec. Ryan Bracket, 10-4
171—Alex Roy (O) pinned Justin Peyton, 5:39
189—Nate Ronan (O) pinned Calvin Speight, 3:48
215—Dylan Evans (S) pinned Chris Kretchmer, 3:50
285—Matt Harper (O) pinned Dave Moman :45
- Log in to post comments
0
