Abington Hangs on to Down Hatboro-Horsham
Abington 37-H-H 31
by Glenn Kaiser
Horsham, PA-The Abington Ghosts wrestling team spoiled Hatboro-Horsham’s Senior Night with an exciting 37-31 victory Wednesday night in SOL Liberty conference dual. Abington opened the match, which started at 172-pounds, with two straight pins by Dylan Kiesling (172) and Laim Knotek (189) to open up a 12-0 lead. The Ghosts added to that total with a forfeit by H-H at 215-pounds. H-H opted to bump up Andy Alameda-Guzman to heavyweight from 215, as “Guz” has been wrestling well as of late, but the move backfired, as Abington’s John Wright bested him 5-1 to extend their lead to 21-0, putting H-H in a big hole on the scoreboard.
As the match came back around to the lightweights, Abington’s Cayden Patterson rebounded from an early deficit to come back and deck H-H’s Keith Toll at 107-pounds to put the match almost out of reach for H-H. However, the wrestling Warriors from H-H had other ideas, as they mounted a comeback attempt with Ryan Allgeier’s double arm-bar fall at 114-pounds and Benny Staub recording a 7-5 decision over the Ghost’s Nathan Sanders to get H-H on the board, giving them a chance.
At 127-pounds, the Ghosts’ John Kaplan slowed the comeback with a major decision shutout over the Hatters David Jensen, winning 8-0 to extend Abington’s lead to 31-9 and putting a damper on the Hatters’ hopes for the come-from-behind win. Nonetheless, H-H ran off three straight victories starting at 133-pounds, all for bonus points to make things interesting on the scoreboard with the match score reading 31-25. Aiden Morrison (H-H) recorded a pinfall with a tight half at 133, Chris Staub blanked Abington’s Elijah Brown 12-0 for a major decision at 139 and senior Orion Newell won his match at 145-pounds with a fall with a big headlock to cap off the run.
With two matches left in the dual meet, H-H sent out senior Imanol Bartuska for his first ever varsity match to keep the comeback alive for H-H. H-H Head Coach Trent Mongillo’s classy move to insert Bartuska into the lineup wasn’t enough, as the Ghosts’ Ryan Solomon sealed the deal for Abington with a fall over Bartuska. With the win the Ghosts’ lead became insurmountable at 37-25 with one match left. H-H’s third senior, Joey Palmeri, finished off the match with a fall at 160-pounds to complete the scoring and the Abington victory 37-31. Abington improved to 9-7 overall and 3-1 in the SOL Liberty, and H-H dropped to 3-7/1-3.
In other Liberty action, Quakertown (#6) blew out Wissahickon 54-15 as they prepare for their first- round match with Pennsbury (#11) Thursday night in the District One Team Championships. The Panther win makes them 4-0 in league action and 11-5 overall as they look to win another SOL league title. With league titles not yet decided officially, Council Rock South (Patriot) and Pennridge (Colonial) are clear favorites to win their conferences as they open up first round action in the D1 Duals Thursday in their home gyms. Central Bucks South will be riding high into their first-round matchup against #2 seeded Sun Valley after taking down sister school CB East 30-22 Wednesday night. CR South, the #1-seed, will tangle with Upper Perk, and Pennridge, the #3-seed, will do battle with Strath Haven.
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