By Alex Frazier
Brad Silimpari can tolerate a loss.
But lack of effort?
No way.
Saturday at the Easton Duals, the Council Rock coach was decidedly disappointed with his squad, which gave up four pins and a technical fall in a 35-28 loss to the host Red Rovers.
Each team won seven bouts, but bonus points proved the difference as Rock South managed just two falls and a major decision.
“We can’t give up that many pins,” said Silimpari. “We took a major step backwards today. You can’t give up five pins and beat anybody.”
The Golden Hawks were coming off a good showing at the Bethlehem Holiday Classic, where they placed eighth.
“I was very pleased with our performance at Bethlehem,” said Silimpari. “We made some real good improvements on day two. We thought we were moving in the right direction. We mark a couple of dual meets during the year as pivotal meets, and this is one of them.”
Before the Hawks could flutter their wings, they found themselves in a 23-0 hole as Easton set the tone with a tech fall at 215 to start the contest.
Six bouts later, Matt Rappo stopped the bleeding with a major decision at 125.
“I go out there and try to get as many bonus points as I can to help the team out,” he said. “I only got four. I was two away from a tech fall.”
He and his brother Billy were two of the bright spots of the day. Billy had won by a major in his first match of the day against Pleasant Valley, and Matt bumped up to 130 and nipped state qualifier Jordan Toledo, 1-0. He escaped in the second and rode Toledo the entire third period.
“Seeing good kids puts you at the top of the podium,” said Rappo. “I was pretty pumped for today.”
“He did an awesome job today,” said Silimpari. “He’s making big strides.”
In the Easton match, Billy fought hard against a bigger and stronger opponent and fended off Peter Stanley’s attempt to score a major decision as he fell 8-2.
Silimpari was particularly pleased with his gutsy effort as well as that of Anthony Hibbert, who bumped up to 285 to face a bigger and stronger Justin Grant. He kept the bout close, avoiding bonus points in a 6-1 loss. Silimpari held those two up as models for the rest of the team.
“You see Billy Rappo and Anthony Hibbert giving up over 20 pounds and they’re out there battling for six or eight minutes, no matter how long it is with everything they’ve got,” said Silimpari. “Other guys on the team need to take a look at those guys and see what they’re doing. We have other guys that just go out, roll over and get pinned. It’s frustrating and embarrassing. Even though they both lost, our team needs to take a look at our two bookmarks at the end.”
Following Matt Rappo’s match in which he dominated Richard Drey, 13-0, just missing the tech fall, Connor Moore used a two-point tilt in the third period to ensure a 6-3 win over Patrick Corpora at 135.
After a loss at 140, Rock ran the table, winning the final five bouts.
Marc Helfrich started the skein with five takedowns to defeat Anthony Minotti, 10-5 at 145. Shawn Gilmore than won his second varsity match using a switch and three back points to defeat Alex Mirida, 4-0.
At 152, Jim Vollrath hit a duck under and put Zach Bambary on his back for the fall at 1:20.
Ed Shupe followed with three takedowns and a reversal to defeat Jeff Griffith, 8-2.
And in the final match of the day, Bobby Lavelle turned in a business-like performance as he built an 8-2 lead before turning Storm Kruczel with a bar and a half to get the fall at 3:26.
“Our three big guys did a nice job,” said Silimpari.
Unfortunately he couldn’t say the same for some of his other grapplers.
“This is one of the most important matches of our year, and we took a step backwards,” said Silimpari. “There’ll be major changes to our lineup starting Wednesday. It’s still a long season, like two steps forward, one step back.”
NOTES: In the first match of the tournament, Council Rock South defeated Pleasant Valley, 50-21. Posting wins for the Golden Hawks were: Mike Bennett, Bobby Lavelle, Anthony Hibbert, Billy Rappo, Matt Rappo, Connor Moore, Marc Helfrich, Shane Gilmore, Jim Vollrath and Ed Shupe.
Easton 35, Council Rock South 28
215—Chris Wilson (E) tech fall Tom Dingui
285—Justin Grant dec. Anthony Hibbert, 6-1
103—Peter Stanley (E) dec. Billy Rappo, 8-2
112—Mike Fleck (E) pinned Ian Krouse, :50
119—Mitchell Minotti (E) pinned Wes Moran, 1:17
125—Matt Rappo (CRS) major dec. Richard Drey, 13-0
130—Joe Rizzolino (E) pinned Dan Altomare, :37
135—Connor Moore (CRS) dec. Patrick Corpora, 6-3
140—Mark Hartenstine (E) pinned Tim Riley, 1:10
145—Marc Helfrich (CRS) dec. Anthony Minotti, 10-5
152—Shane Gilmore (CRS) dec. Alex Menda, 4-0
160—Jim Vollrath (CRS) pinned Zach Bambary, 1:20
171—Ed Shupe (CRS) dec. Jeff Griffith, 8-2
189—Bobby Lavelle (CRS) pinned Strom Kruczel, 2:26
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