Jan 24, 2018 By Adam Brewer, For The Greene County Messenger 4 min read

MOUNT PLEASANT — Mount Pleasant scored the final 15 points of the match Wednesday night to prevail over Jefferson-Morgan, 39-33, in the Section 2-AA 5th-place consolation match in the WPIAL Team Wrestling Tournament.

After losing the last two seasons in the fifth-place match to Mapletown and Bentworth, the Vikings (7-4) gained redemption with the victory and will be making their first appearance in the Class AA team tournament since 2015.

“Tonight was big for us,” Mount Pleasant coach Zach Sheridan said. “We have six seniors on our team and they lived through those disappointments in the playoffs the last two seasons. It was eating at them and they been thinking about that a lot. Tonight, we had a chance at our home gym and a lot of kids stepped up.”

Brackets will be released on Thursday and postseason action will start on Tuesday.

The Rockets (4-4) won the previous two playoff matches against Mount Pleasant with wins in the Section 2-AA semifinal round in 2013 and 2015.

After the Vikings’ Alex Miscovich was awarded a forfeit win at 145, the key match on the night was at 152 between MP’s Kyle Jones and J-M’s Nathan Bilonick. The bout had a little bit of controversy around it.

Bilonick led 2-0 at the end of the first period and held a 3-0 edge going into the third period after the referee didn’t initially give Jones credit for a late takedown in the final seconds of the second period.

After the referee went to the scorer’s table, he awarded the takedown and gave Jones the two points. Jones then escaped in the opening moments of the third, and recorded a late takedown and two back points for a 7-3 decision at 152 to deadlock things at 33-33.

“This was a very frustrating night,” J-M coach Mike Lesko said. “The referee never called the two points (for the takedown by Jones) on the mat. Then he went to the table and somehow it got changed. I’m not sure why he even went to the table. But it’s whatever, you can’t change it and you have to move on.

“Our goal was to get to this fifth-place match and to advance to the Class AA bracket. Our team season is over, and we just have to refocus for the individual season. Now we got extra time to practice. Mount Pleasant came to wrestle and they got a couple of key bonus points.”

Zac Presock recorded a forfeit win at 160 to give the Vikings the postseason victory.

“That was a crazy run by us the last couple of matches,” Sheridan said. “Kyle (Jones) has really been putting the work in and everyday he gets better. One thing we always try to tell him is to stay calm out there. It was a little chaotic out there, but he kept his head.”

The action started at 170, and the Rockets grabbed an early 9-0 lead after Justin Maddich received a forfeit at 170 and Kolin Walker won a 6-0 decision at 182.

After the home team made it 9-6 with a forfeit win by Zach Charlesworth at 195, the visitors increased its lead to 15-6 after Jonathan Wolfe had to wrestle up to 220 and scored a third period pin at 4:28 over Ian Fasano.

“Even though he was giving up 40 pounds to that kid, I really liked that match-up for Wolfe,” Lesko said. “He is in great shape and he just had to stick with it. I think you could tell that kid was getting tired in the third period. I think Jon felt him getting tired and made a nice move for the pin.”

Cody Vokes collected a forfeit win at 285 for the Vikings and then no bout contested at 106.

Mount Pleasant picked up 12 critical points in the next two weight classes for its first lead of the night, 24-15, after Damian George (113) and Doug Bittner (120) wrestled up and secured second period pins.

“With only 10 guys on our team, we have had to juggle and move guys up in our lineup all year,” Sheridan said. “You just can’t afford to give up too many points and your best guys have to wrestle for you. Damian and Doug are team-first guys. They don’t blink out there. They welcome the challenge of wrestling up a couple of classes.”

Before the late rally for the Vikings, the Rockets regained the moment with three straight forfeit wins to Peyton Whipkey (126), Josh Agnew (132) and Gavin Teasdale (138).