By Alex Frazier
PIAA Tournament notes– At 119, Hatboro-Horsham’s Matt Harkins made it to the semifinals, beating Brandon Choate of Blue Mountain, 10-7. But then he lost to 34-0 and eventual champion Nico Megaludis of Franklin Regional, 13-5.“Once he gets up, it’s pretty hard to come back on him,” said Harkins. “He kept scoring in neutral.”
Dropping into the consolations, he edged Monsignor Bonner’s Nick Bongard, who had denied him a state-qualifying spot last year at regionals with a 5-3 win, in an 8-7 victory.
Bongard actually led 7-3 late in the match when Harkins hit a five-point move with 20 seconds left to win it.
The win set him up for a re-match with Choate. This time he lost 11-5 to take fourth.
“He knew what I was trying to do in neutral, which was trying to take the single shot,” said Harkins. “He was pretty much blocking that.”
And in doing so came up with some counter takedowns.
“I’m happy,” said Harkins. “My goal was to get top four and I did, but I really wanted to win that last match and walk out of the season with a win.”
Teammate Nick Lynch failed to make the second day at 171, as he lost his first two matches, his first to eventual state champ Kenny Courts of Central Dauphin by fall in 55 seconds.
• Heading into the state tournament, Souderton Joe Stolfi’s goal was just to make it to the award’s podium.
He certainly did that, making it about halfway to the top.
But in hindsight, Stolfi was a bit disappointed.
“It’s a mixed feeling,” he said. “It’s not that I’m completely upset. It’s just that I know I could have wrestled a lot better.”
Stolfi attributes his minor setbacks to thinking too much.
After majoring Brandon Fedorka of Hopewell 11-3 in his first bout, he lost a tough 6-5 decision to Whitehall’s Taray Carey, 6-5 in the quarterfinals. Stolfi fell behind early 6-1 and came on strong in the third period, but time ran out on him.
“I did get off to a slow start,” he said. “I think I might have been thinking too much.”
Stolfi had wrestled Carey in the Whitehall Duals and lost 4-3.
“I knew what kind of stuff he did to me the first time and I tried to strategize for it,” he said. “I guess I was thinking too much. I should have just wrestled instead of trying to think it through. I wrestle better when I don’t think at all, when I just feel.”
In his first three consolation matches, he did just that.
He overwhlemed Owen J. Roberts’ Scott Syrek with a 42-second pin.
“I didn’t think at all,” he said. “I just went out there and I wrestled. I didn’t think and that worked better.”
He then blanked Methacton’s Brandan Clark, whom he had pinned in the district finals, 6-0, and previously undefeated Sean Sadosky of St. Mary’s, 6-3, to set up a rematch of the regional finals with Oxford’s Nick Ruggear, whom he had beaten 6-3.
Ruggear had his number this time in a 9-4 decision.
“There were too may close calls in that match that I didn’t win and needed to,” said Stolfi.
• Norristown’s Marcus Robbins lost his first match to undefeated (36-0) and eventual champ Evan Craig of Abington Heights. Robbins was just of one of four wrestlers Craig pinned en route to the heavyweight title.
In the consolations, Robbins racked up two falls of his own along with a pair of decisions to make it to the consolation finals, where he lost to Bethel Park’s Adam Lezenga, who also came into the tournament undefeated (46-0), 6-2.
• Three Upper Moreland wresters qualified for states, with John Bolich claiming seventh place at 160.
The junior lost his first match 7-3 to Big Spring’s Luke Etter before making a run in the wrestlebacks. He tech falled Ben Amrhein of North Hills and then cruised by Central Mountain’s Tyler Buckwalter, 9-1, finishing him off with a lateral drop at the end of the third period.
However, the run stopped there as Lewistown’s Colton Spade took advantage of several reversals and some back points in a 9-3 victory. Ironically, Bolich handled Spade in a pre-season match.
“I was a little over-aggressive,” he said. “I was on top trying to turn him, and when you’re trying to turn someone, it opens you up.”
That loss put Bolich in the match for seventh place against Nick Bonaccorsi of Bethel Park, who had only lost to three-time state champion Marshall Peppelman 3-1.
Bolich had wrestled Bonaccorsi several times previously and had never beaten him. This time he escaped in the second period and turned him for two in the third for a 3-1 win.
“Bonaccorsi is better than Spade,” said Bolich.
In fact, Bonaccorsi won by default over Spade in the first round.
“I’m happy with the way I wrestled,” said Bolich. “I’m happy with some of the opponents I beat. It was a crazy bracket.”
Bolich finished the year at 39-5 and is already looking forward to next year.
“I’m shooting for gold next year,” he said.
Upper Moreland’s James Nicholson came within a whisker of medaling at 171.
Like many District One wrestlers, he also lost his first round match to eventual runner-up Tristan Warner of Cumberland Valley, 12-2.
He came back with a 9-3 decision over Jake Burnside of Titusville but then lost a heartbreaker to Josh Popple of Coughlin. With the scored tied at 2-2, Popple chose bottom in the fourth overtime period and escaped to conclude Nicholson’s high school career.
“He hasn’t been on his attack and his usual aggressive style,” said Bolich.
Upper Moreland’s third qualifier Tim Santry lost two straight on Thursday to end his high school career at 121-29.
100 club – Congratulations to Council Rock South’s Matt Martoccio, who became the latest member of the 100-win Club.
His 100th came against South Central champion Nick Dragonette of Wilson in the second round of consolations at the PIAA Championships. He soundly defeated Dragonette, racking up several sets of back points en route to an 11-0 major decision.
“I didn’t wrestle the way I wanted to,” said Martoccio. “When I got off the mat my dad said something to me, ‘Congratulations on 100,’ and it clicked, that was my 100th win.”
After losing his preliminary match to defending and eventual two-time state champion Josh Kindig, Martoccio set his mind to the daunting task of wrestling back for a medal.
“There wasn’t much I could do but go out there and win and wrestle back,” he said. “And I did a pretty good job of that.”
Martoccio ran off three wins before losing his last two to place sixth.
His first match, he decked Tyler Parsons of Cathedral Prep and followed that with his 100th win.
Next was a familiar opponent in Northeast Catholic’s Anthony White. It was the third meeting of the two this year. Martoccio beat him at the Escape the Rock Tournament 7-3 but then lost in the regional semifinals, 3-2.
White took a 5-2 lead into the third period. Martoccio picked up a point when White was penalized for stalling and then shot in on a low single and wrapped up his ankles for the tying takedown with one second left.
In overtime, Martoccio earned another takedown to clear yet another obstacle from his path to the consi finals.
However, the win streak stopped there as he lost his next two bouts, a close 2-1 decision to Garnet Valley’s Joe Marino and a 4-0 loss to Brian Brill of Central Mountain for fifth.
“From there on, it didn’t click for me,” he said. “I made too many mistakes the whole day Saturday.”
Still, he finished two places higher than he did last year as a sophomore, when he finished eighth at 130, and he was up two weight classes.
“It was a tougher weight class too,” he said. “My personal opinion is I’m top four, but it didn’t happen for me.”
Martoccio knows he has a lot of work to do in the off-season, if he wants to continue his rise to the top.
He got back on the mat Wednesday.
“We’ll see what happens for next year,” he said. “I’m getting ready for freestyle and Greco and we’ll see where the summer takes me. Hopefully, I’ll wrestle every weekend and get better. I’m looking to get better technique-wise and limit mistakes in the tough tournaments I go in, late second day and third day when I have 10 matches in. I made too many mistakes the third day of states.”
Final Top Guns
Top Guns
103—Billy Rappo, Council Rock South
112—Kevin Flack, William Tennent
119—Matt Harkins, Hatboro-Horsham
125—Scott Wolfinger, Quakertown
130—Tim Santry, Upper Moreland
135—Josh Dziewa, Council Rock South
140—Matt Martoccio, Council Rock South
145—Brandon Parker, Norristown
152—Greg Lanctot, Councl Rock Norh
160— John Staudenmayer, Plymouth Whitemarsh
171—James Nicholson, Upper Moreland
189—Jamie Callender, Council Rock North
215—Joe Stolfi, Souderton
285—Marcus Robbins, Norristown
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