LH puts clamps on Uniontown
Jerry Simon is in his 23rd year as Uniontown’s wrestling coach, but there’s one occurrence that still bothers him when it happens. “It’s always disappointing to lose to Laurel Highlands,” Simon said after the Mustangs defeated his Red Raiders, 51-20, at Uniontown Senior High School on Wednesday night. “They’re our big rival. That’s one the kids get pretty hyped up for.”
Laurel Highlands won seven of the 10 matches there were wrestled in improving to 2-1 overall and in Section 2-AAA.
Del Simpson, Rick Nicklow, Blake Faust and Greg Hogan all won by fall for LH.
The Mustangs, led this season by seniors Nick Sible, Simpson and Mike Capan, expected a battle from their cross-town foes, and got just that, despite what the score indicated.
“I told the kids coming in that this was going to be a tough wrestling match,” Pegg said. “I think it was a lot closer than what the final score showed. Jerry’s kids looked like they were in real good shape.
“It was a good match for both teams. I thought our kids wrestled OK, but we can wrestle at a higher level. There are mistakes the opponents make that we need to capitalize on.”
Simon feels his team has plenty of room for improvement as well.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Simon said. “But it’s still early in the season. Hopefully, we’ll improve and get better. There’s a lot of teaching to do.
“But they just out-wrestled us today. They wrestled hard and they deserved to win.”
The Mustangs opened the match with back-to-back major decisions to go up 8-0.
Brent Carbonara fell behind Uniontown’s Doug Rush in the opening match at 135, 7-4, but dominated over the final two periods to win going away, 16-7.
Sible controlled the Red Raiders’ Jason King from the start in earning a 14-3 victory at 140.
Nathan Klingensmith got Uniontown (1-3, 0-3) on the board with a 19-5 major decision over Jarrett Bond at 145, falling just short of a technical fall in the closing seconds.
Simpson made quick work of Jon Van Bremen at 152 with a pin in 1:12, and Capan picked up a forfeit at 160 to put LH up 20-4.
Nicklow allowed an early take down by Scott Bell at 171 before recovering, and eventually pinned Bell with 26 seconds left in the match to make it 26-4.
The Red Raiders’ Jeremiah Ditmore over-powered Mike Sible at 189, winning by fall in 3:10, and Danny Newlon won by forfeit at 215 to pull the hosts within 10.
Faust broke Uniontown’s momentum, though, with a pin at 275 in 3:52 to put the Mustangs up 32-16.
“I thought that was a key match that could’ve gone either way,” Pegg said. “I thought Nicklow winning at 171 was another key match.”
After Cameron Muma, a freshman who has impressed Pegg, received a forfeit at 103, Josh Boyle clinched the match with a hard-fought 7-3 decision over Uniontown’s Jeremy Rice at 112.
“I thought Boyle stepped it up and picked up a big win for us there,” Pegg said.
In one of the most entertaining bouts of the night, the Red Raiders’ Dan Rush won a 20-8 major decision over Chris Belch at 119. Rush jumped out to a 13-2 lead, but Belch caught him for a take down and near fall in the closing seconds of the second period. Rush barely fought off the pin attempt, took a 13-8 advantage into the final period and pulled away from there.
“It took a lot of fortitude by Dan to avoid the pin there,” Simon said. “He did a nice job coming out of that, then regrouped very well.”
The Mustangs’ Greg Hogan planked Jon Guth in 3:15 at 125, and LH’s Earl Moore closed the match with an 8-3 decision over Bobby Holt at 130.