Connellsville wrestlers hammer Butler
The Tornado blew out into a gentle zephyr. Connellsville won 13 of the 14 bouts contested, seven of them by pins, and hammered Butler, 65-6, in the opening round of the WPIAL’s team wrestling competition last night at the Connellsville gym. The Tornado reached the first round with a pigtail win over Fox Chapel, to see who would meet second-seeded Connellsville in the opening round.
In the pre-match draw, competition started at 145, with the Falcons (20-2) winning the first six and opening up a 32-0 lead. Butler got on the board with what would be their only win and scoring of the night when heavyweight Adam Pritts pinned Steve Hughes in the second period. Hughes was down to start the second period, and Pritts turned him over, into a cradle at 3:42.
Other than that, everything else belonged to the Falcons, who advanced to the quarterfinals later in the evening, against Chartiers Valley.
Connellsville coach Tommy Dolde called the outcome “a solid win for us. We had not seen Butler this year so we really didn’t have any idea of who could do what, so we just told our guys to go out and wrestle like they knew how. They did, and they pretty much did what I expected of them. Butler’s heavy is a good wrestler.”
Butler coach Scott Stoner, who is a native of Scottdale and a graduate of Southmoreland High, said sophomore Pritts “is a very fine prospect for the future, and a good student. He recently tied our school record for pins in one season, having 17 falls in his 22-5 record.
“We didn’t come prepared to wrestle and Connellsville did. Our 189 (Ryan Mullen) and 140 (Joe Davis) wrestled well in a losing effort.”
Corey Fox (145) got the Falcons started with an 8-6 decision over Gary Gombos, wrapping up with a reversal in the second and a takedown after Gombos escaped.
Jarrod King (152) followed with the fastest win of the match, taking Ken McDevitt down and into a cradle in 23-seconds, Chad McBurney followed with a 3:37 lockup of Jon Miller, and Jason Doppelheuer had nine takedowns, around seven Josh Smith escapes, when he locked up a technical fall at 4:18.
Jim Tony (189)_ was down to start the second, then reversed and chested Mullen down in 2:39. Brent Wilson (215) had an 8-0 lead when he turned Aaron Brown over and clamped him in 3:42. Pritts followed with the only Tornado win, then the Falcons strung out from there.
Jonathon Knepper (103) got Josh Snyder across the chest and down in :57, and Steve Bell racked up 14 points in the second period, reversing to start, then getting three takedowns and six back points around three escapes, before clinching a technical fall at the second period ending buzzer.
Ashton Primus (119) scored the second fastest pin of the match when he put Tom Hollerman down and locked him in 25-seconds. Adam Bucci started with a takedown and three backs in the first and went on to a 10-0 major decision over Sean Pelusi, Josh Martin (130) clamped Josh Colborn on the edge of the mat in 1:22, Delbert Sines (135) escaped and took Eric Grenci down in the third to wrap up a 10-6 decision, and Kyle Martin (140) escaped to start the third and went on to a 4-0 collaring of Davis.