Glenn Kaiser recaps the highlights of Council Rock South’s journey that included a pair of consolation rounds before falling to Nazareth on Saturday.
Golden Hawks Eliminated In Consolations at Hershey
By Glenn Kaiser
Hershey, PA-Council Rock South had a similar ending to their 2018 quest for a team medal at the PIAA AAA Team Championships as they did a year ago here at the Giant Center in Hershey, they were eliminated by Nazareth in the consolation bracket 48-15. Nazareth, CR South’s head coach Brad Silimperi’s alma mater, sent the Golden Hawks home from the state duals again this season. Nonetheless, South was able to advance in the consis with two victories after Thursday’s first round loss to Cannon Mac, which reached the bronze medal match against Cathedral Prep, who dropped Nazareth 40-25 in one consi semi- final. The Big Macs eliminated Seneca Valley 27-23 in the other consolation semi-final.
CRS dismissed Shikellamy in Round I of the Consolations 45-27 to advance and wait for the loser of the quarterfinal bout between Spring-Ford and Seneca Valley. It was Spring-Ford who dropped down after a hard-fought battle with the Raiders 36-26. South beat S-F 36-22, which was a similar scenario that occurred in the District One Finals last Saturday. Without L.J. Kahn, who was dealing with a re-occurring injury, the Golden Hawks defeated the Rams with a few different moves in their line-up, along with some of the same match-ups from the D1 final.
The Golden Hawks were impressive versus the Shikellamy Braves, as they recorded four falls en route to their decisive victory. South jumped out to an early lead with back-to-back falls at 106 and 113-pounds by Kyle Waterman and Max Mendez respectively. Mendez used his patented cradle to deck the Braves Jared Zartman in just 55-seconds, which followed Waterman’s first period fall. Those pins were followed by South’s Braden Ricchini’s 17-7 major decision over Shik’s Drew Balestrini at 120-pounds in which Ricchini used a series of slick ankle picks, including a nice cross-ankle pick and a fireman’s carry dump to push CRS ahead 16-6 in the team scoring.
Shane Hanson-Ashworth picked up a 21-4 technical fall at 126-pounds at the end of the second period with a takedown clinic versus the Braves Frank Quinones to extend the Golden Hawks lead to 21-6, and they never looked back from there. Additional falls were added by Cole Flanagan at 160-pounds and Nik Korbich at 170-pounds to blow the match wide open at 41-15 in favor of South. Giani Gilch continued his hot streak with a major decision at 195-pounds to finish the scoring for the Golden Hawks.
Joel Martsinovsky (138) was inserted into the Golden Hawks line-up and notched a tech fall of his own, which helped with the absence of Kahn. From there, it was onto the rematch with Spring-Ford. South was again impressive down low and in the middle, winning seven of eight bouts from 106 to 152-pounds. Max Mendez recorded a fall at 113-pounds, and Ben Radner (132), Eric Woloshyn (138) and Cole Flanagan (152) all scored major decisions to put South in a position to win at 30-10 after Flanagan’s victory. Giani Gilch won again at 195-pounds, decisioning the Rams Louis Carbajal 3-2 up top for some cushion for the Golden Hawks in their 36-22 victory.
With a chance to earn a berth in the consolation semifinals, and potential medal, the Golden Hawks squared off with the Nazareth Blue Eagles in round three of the consi-bracket. The Blue Eagles were too much for South, as they could only post four victories in the dual. Nik Korbich (170), Jon Weinstein (220-forfeit), Kyle Waterman (106) and Max Mendez (113) were the only winners for the Golden Hawks. Mendez defeated Nazareth’s touted 113-pounder Alex Smith 3-2. South was eliminated Saturday morning with the 48-15 loss.
South will wrestle Abington Tuesday evening in a rescheduled dual to complete their dual season and regroup for the individual postseason that begins Saturday, Feb. 17, at the SOL National Conference Championships at Bensalem H.S. Hatboro-Horsham hosts the American Conference Championships and Central Bucks East the Continental Championships. All three SOL Championships will start at 9 am and run straight through this coming Saturday.
PIAA Class AAA Duals (Consolation Round 3)
NAZARETH 48, COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 15
126 - Blaine Wilson dec. Braden Ricchini, 6-1 (3-0)
132 - Andrew Cerniglia dec. Ben Radner, 4-1 (6-0)
138 - Ryan O'Grady won by tech. fall over Joel Martsinovsky, 15-0 (11-0)
145 - Nathan Stefanik maj. dec. Landon Moore, 19-6 (15-0)
152 - Sammy Sasso pinned Cole Flanagan, 2:04 (21-0)
160 - Jake Dressler pinned Peter Eklund, 0:37 (27-0)
170 - Nik Korbich dec. Zach Keifer, 5-2 (27-3)
182 - Joseph Capobianco pinned Giani Gilch, 2:38 (33-3)
195 - Cade Wilson pinned Robert Wilkinson, 1:23 (39-3)
220 - John Weinstein won by forfeit (39-9)
285 - Justyce Searock pinned Emmanuel Anton, 3:18 (45-9)
106 - Kyle Waterman dec. Andreo Ferraina, 9-3 (45-12)
113 - Maximino Mendez dec. Andrew Smith, 3-2 (45-15)
120 - Sean Pierson dec. Shane Hanson-Ashworth, 5-1 (48-15)
Nazareth wrestlers in bold.
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