Scholastic wrestling
Top-ranked Kiski slams Connellsville CONNELLSVILLE – Ever since the scholastic wrestling season started, Kiski Area has been ranked number one in the WPIAL, and it took the Cavaliers just 2:46 Tuesday night to start backing up that ranking.
The Cavaliers (3-0) started off with two pins in a total of 2:46, and rolled from there to a 40-15 win over host Connellsville (4-1) in their match of unbeaten wrestling teams.
The card got under way with the pre-match draw listing 275 as the leadoff bout, then swinging back into regular status. Brandon Rupert gave the Cavs the lead for good when he put Steve Hughes down, rolled him over and chested him to the mat in one-minute flat.
Shawn Loughran (103) followed with a 1:46 pinning of P.J. Holden, chesting him down on the edge of the mat, for a 12-0 team lead, and the visitors never looked back.
Connellsville came back with two decisions to make it 12-7, but that was as close as the Falcons would get. Steve Bell (112) led 9-1 into the third, then got four takedowns and back points, around five escapes, for a major 18-6 decision over Zack McKendree.
Ashtin Primus (119) got the second Falcon win, taking Tyler Oravec down twice in the first, around an escape, and moving from there to a 6-1 decision.
Kiski coach Chuck Tirsky said, “Connellsville is a very good wrestling team and I think we came in here tonight and proved ourselves against a very good team. Those two opening pins gave us some momentum at the start, but then they came right back with two wins to make it close. But I think we are well balanced from top to bottom, we have good upper weights and that was a big difference.”
Tirsky felt the pivotal bouts would be 130, 140, 171, and 189, and the Cavaliers won three of them, losing only at 140.
Connellsville coach Tommy Dolde felt the key bouts were “103, 125, 130, and 140. We needed to get some wins in those weights, but we lost three of them.”
After the two Falcon wins, Kiski took three in a row and widened the lead to 21-7. A.J. Moore (125) got three takedowns in the third around four escapes, to nail Adam Bucci, 12-5, then A.J. Milanak (130) started with two takedowns in the first around two escapes, and went on to decision Josh Martin, 10-5, before Angelo Manifest (135) wrapped up the third with two takedowns around an escape to decision Delbert Sines, 9-4.
Kyle Martin (140) snapped that run with the third Falcon win, 7-1, over Kurt Lorenz, going ahead for good with a takedown and back points in the second.
Steve Stedrak (145) won a 15-3 major over Corey Fox, clinching with a takedown and backs in the second, and two more takedowns in the third.
Jarrod King got the last Falcon win of the night, and needed only 2:55 to do it. He took Bill Briscoe down in the first, the latter escaped, then King put him down again and got nine backs for a 12-1 period lead. Briscoe was down to start the second, and King tipped him twice for five clinching back points in a 17-1 technical fall.
Kiski then swept out from there. Garret Lange (160) got a takedown in the first and stayed ahead to decision Chad McBurney 5-2; Mike Corcetti (171) clinched a 5-2 win over Jason Doppelheuer with an escape and takedown in the third, Andrew Joseph (189) escaped to start the third then put Jim Tony down three times to wrap up a 10-6 decision, and Scott McKillop (215) ended the card the same way it started, pinning Brent Wilson in 2:06. McKillop was up to start the second and flipped Wilson over for the count six seconds after the whistle.
As he left the gym, Tirsky had a reminder that fans might want to remember for the future, noting “I am very sure that this is not the last time we will meet. I think that somewhere down the road we will be meeting again at the end of the season.”