Feb 12, 2005 By Jeremy Elliott For The 4 min read

At first glance, you would’ve thought the Connellsville’s wrestling team dropped its quarterfinal tilt to Council Rock North in the PIAA Class AAA Team Championships at Giant Center in Hershey. Head coach Thomas Dolde had the sort of scowl indicative of a hap-hazard performance in need of major repair.

The final statistics said otherwise.

The Falcons (26-3) were sluggish at times but managed to win 10 of 14 bouts for a decisive 39-18 victory to earn a spot in the Class AAA semifinals opposite District 11 Nazareth 9 a.m. today.

“We need to be more aggressive and intense,” Dolde said. “This certainly wasn’t our best match. We definitely can’t give up points tomorrow like we did today.”

Mt. Pleasant earned a berth in the Class AA semifinals by dismantling West Scranton 39-15 in the quarterfinals.

The Vikings (20-5) will square off against Reynolds at 9 a.m. today.

Connellsville got off to a quick start, gaining a 9-0 advantage on decisions by Buddy Sines (152), Adam Knepper (160) and Jason Doppelheuer (171).

After Council Rock scored at 189 when Justin Larente got a 3-1 decision over Andy Schleihauf, the Falcons took control at the heavy weights.

Junior Josh Brewer (21-15) hit a takedown and an escape in the second period to outlast Jack Callender 5-1. Melvin Warrick moved to 7-1 overall when he pinned Randall Lee at 275.

“That was a big pressure situation for Melvin,” Dolde said. “He’s only wrestled seven matches, and he goes out and comes up big putting the guy on the mat.”

It set the tone for the rest of the match.

Council Rock made a charge, pulling to within 18-12 on a pin by John Scheidell over Kody Pujia at 103 and a decision by Oliver Hertzel at 112.

Dolde wasn’t worried, however. And why should he, considering he had Mike Zavada (5-0), Steve Bell (34-3) and Ashtin Primus (32-5) yet to go.

Two of the three didn’t disappoint.

Zavada easily disposed of Matt Hartley at 125, pinning him in 36 seconds.

“I just wanted to score some points with Mike,” Dolde said. “He runs out there and puts the guy down on his back right away and gets the pin. That was big.”

Bell went on the offensive against Earl Longstreth, who was 32-4 entering the bout, nailing a pair of takedowns in the first and second period and a single takedown in the third for a hard-fought 10-6 decision.

The surprise came at 135, when David Zeek hit a reversal just as Primus was going for the fall and pinned the Falcon star at 3:45.

“I felt really good going into the bulk of our lineup,” Dolde said. “We normally make our runs through there, but then Primus goes out and gets caught and pinned.”

Zach Snyder picked up the slack, ending any thoughts of an Indians comeback with a pin at 140 over Scott Glover in 4:36, making the score 36-18.

Josh Martin closed out the match with a 6-3 decision over Nick Martin.

“It was a good start for tomorrow,” Dolde said. “We’ve seen Nazareth the last couple years, and they are solid through their entire lineup. They do an outstanding job, so we will have to wrestle better than we did today.”

MT. PLEASANT 39, WEST SCRANTON 15: The Vikings stunned the Invaders with a balanced attack, capturing nine of 14 matches.

Sophomore’s Nick Harr and Stefen Firmstone gave the Vikings a quick 7-0 lead that would grow to 17-0 before West Scranton knew what hit them.

Harr orchestrated a beautiful escape in the second period to pull out a 1-0 win at 135, while Firmstone scored a huge major over Javier Acosta at 140.

The Invaders gave Donnie Ament, 33-3 entering states, a forfeit and took their chances with Ed Moorhead. It was one they would regret.

Moorhead scored a 12-0 major decision over Brian Lynott, and the rout was on.

“I think it deflated them when they moved away from Ament and Moorhead won,” Vikings head coach Mark Mears said. “I think that settled us down.”

The combination of Zach Holt (112), Lee Vanella (125) and Joe Geary took care of the rest.

Holt scored a tech fall (18-3) at 5:30 to make the score 28-12. Vanella followed Holt’s lead with a tech fall over John Smerecky and Geary pounded Chris Jennings to gain a fall at the 1:50 mark.

“This is a big win for us,” Mears said. “We have our best lineup of the year, and I really think we have a shot against Reynolds tomorrow.”