Thomas Jefferson defeats Uniontown
UNIONTOWN – The Uniontown wrestling team took a tough loss in Section 2-AAA action Wednesday night, dropping a 61-5 decision to visiting Thomas Jefferson. The Red Raiders (0-2) started off giving up 24 points at the start of the match because of forfeits at 103, 119, 145 and 275.
The Jaguars (1-1, 5-3) also recorded three pins.
“Our kids were close in a couple of matches tonight, but we just could not come up with key win to give us some momentum,” Uniontown coach Jerry Simon said.
“We have a lot of young kids, and they lack some experience at the varsity level. I think we’ll get better as the year progresses.”
Simon tried to make some moves early in the match that did not pay off.
Jim Jenkins moved from 171 up to 189 and was pinned by John Kampert in 43-seconds.
Jared Hackney moved up from 189 to 215 and was tied with Craig Conaway 3-3 at the end of the first period. Conaway started on top in the second period and was able to pin Hackney at the 3:12 mark.
Thomas Jefferson received forfeits at 275 and 103 to increase its lead to 24-0.
The lead went to 27-0 at the end of the 112-pound bout when A.J. Ross managed to escape from Uniontown’s Jonathan Jordan in the third period for a 1-0 win.
Another forfeit at 119, gave the Jaguars a 33-0 lead.
“I think we have a good solid team with plenty of depth. I’m pleased with the way they went after Uniontown tonight.” Jaguars coach Ryan Brain said. “We’ve already met Connellsville, but we still have matches with Albert Gallatin and Laurel Highlands, which will be a true test to see if we can make the playoffs.”
Uniontown came close to breaking the TJ run in the 125-pound bout. Jeremy Rice scored an early takedown and had a 2-0 lead over the Jaguars’ Jesse Hovan going into the second period. Rice started on the bottom and gave up a three-point near fall, but fought back to gain a reversal, and a two-point near fall to take a brief 6-3 lead.
Hovan came back to score a reversal and a three-point near fall to take an 8-6 lead at the end of two periods. Hovan started on the bottom for the third period and reversed Rice to take a 10-6 lead. Rice had a reversal to close to within two, but Hovan scored another reversal for a 12-8 win, give TJ a 36-0 lead.
Jake Fisher increased the Jaguars lead to 40-0, with a 17-4 major decision over Joe Hazel in the 130-pound match. Joe Silvio’s pin in 34-seconds increased the Jaguars’ lead to 46-0.
Bobby Holt broke through with Uniontown’s only win on the night, with a 21-6 technical fall over Luke Harvey in the 140-pound bout. Holt came out aggressive, taking a 10-2 lead at the end of the first period with two takedowns, an escape, plus receiving two penalty points.
He increased his lead to 17-5 in the second with two reversals and a three-point near fall. Holt scored two more takedowns in the final period for the win with the match being stopped at the 5:10 mark.
Thomas Jefferson came right back with another forfeit at 145.
The Jaguars got decisions from Mike Generalovich (3-0) over Jason King at 152, Tom Russo (7-0) over Josh Malenke at 160, and Steve Pope held off Jonathan Van Bremen for an 11-6 win at 171 to close out the match.
“We were a lot more aggressive last week, tonight, we looked very lackadaisical.” Simon said.
“We need to be more aggressive. We sat back on our heels and let Thomas Jefferson bring the match to us. Hopefully we can get that turned around, before we go to Elizabeth-Forward next week.”