Connellsville wrestlers help new Dolde get 1st win
Tommy Dolde is now officially a head wrestling coach and it didn’t take him as long to reach that status as it did his dad and mentor. As he came off the mats after a post-match meeting with Albert Gallatin coach Duane Dupont, Dolde accepted congratulations for his first win and smiled “and I got it quicker than my dad did.”
The 47-18 win over Albert Gallatin marked the first outing for Dolde in his new status as Connellsville head coach after 14 years as an assistant to his now retired dad (but volunteer assistant coach).
Tom Dolde Sr. earned his first win halfway into his first season as head coach, the first of what started a WPIAL all-time record of 448 wins.
Connellsville (1-0) trailed only once in this meeting of teams seen by other coaches as the top contenders for the Section 2-AAA title. Jon Bittinger (103) took P.J. Holden down locked him in a near-side cradle for the fall with four seconds left in the first period.
The younger Dolde observed “this is a good start after we had to replace eight seniors lost from last year’s team. Our conditioning and our techniques were good for the opening match. I felt coming in that the key bouts would be 140, 152, and heavyweight, and we won all three.”
Dupont felt the key bouts would be “heavyweight, 130, 135, and 140, plus we got a real big pin at 145. Overall, I felt we had the chance to win more bouts than we did, but we missed too many chances to score more points.”
The match started with a new format whereby 14 disks are put out, face down, and one is selected. The weight class on the disk will be the opening bout, then the competition returns to the usual format, starting with 103.
Last night’s battle started with the heavyweights, Steve Hughes of Connellsville decisioning Drew Dindl, 7-2, starting with a takedown and three back points in the last 12 seconds of the second period and going from there.
After Bittinger pinned Holden, CAHS took the lead for good when Josh Holub (112) and Steve Bell (119) won by forfeits, Dupont noting “it was tough to forfeit there, but we hope to have those two wrestlers back soon.”
Then Dolde started to do some shifting. Originally, Astin Primus was slated at 119, but after the two forfeits, Primus was bumped up to 125, Adam Bucci up one to 130, and Josh Martin ditto to 135. All three moves were winners.
Primus took Justin Williams down and into a cradle for the fall at 1:43, Bucci got takedowns in the first two periods and a reversal in the third to trip Mark Brown, 7-1, and Martin had a takedown, reversal, and back points in successive periods for another 7-1 win.
Dolde explained “we felt we had to get Primus in somewhere, and since we knew at the start they were going to forfeit two bouts, we decided to start bumping.”
Kyle Martin (140) ran the Falcon streak to six when he took Brandon Radicic down and into a stack at 1:11. Ryan Howell (145) snapped the Falcon run putting Corey Fox down and into a near side cradle at 1:49, then Jarrod King got the win that wrapped it all up for Connellsville.
King (152) had three takedowns and back points, around two escapes to lead 8-2 in the first, then got four takedowns and a near-fall in the second, around four escape points, and closed with two takedowns around an escape in the third, to wrap up a 22-7 technical fall over Jared Hirtz. That gave CAHS a 38-12 lead with four bouts left, and no way they could lose.
Chad McBurney (160) had a 6-5 lead over AG’s Charlie Belch going into the third, then he escaped from down to statrt and got a takedown to lead 9-5. Belch reversed with :30 to go but couldn’t get any closer.
John Ptak (AG) nipped Jason Doppelheuer 9-4 in a good 171 test. Ptak tried for a stack in the second, but Doppelheuer kicked out. Ptak had a 5-2 lead into the third where he was down to start. He reversed to lead 7-2, then Doppelheuer escaped, and Ptak took him down again to seal the decision.
Jim Tony (189) got the last Falcon win with a 2:51 roll over and lockup of Tom Karpency, and Mark Berry went overtime to nip Brent Wilson, 3-1, in the 215 windup. Berry escaped in the second and Wilson in the third for a 1-1 tie, then Berry got a takedown at :22 of overtime to win.
Afterward, Dupont said “I congratulate Tommy for his first win and for the caliber of his team. I thought both teams wrestled well. We have a good work ethic and now we are going to get busy for the six section matches that are still ahead. “Our goal is to win, but you can’t overlook any of the teams.”