Connellsville eliminated from WPIAL team tournament
CONNELLSVILLE – Connellsville was eliminated from the WPIAL team wrestling tournament Tuesday night, losing to Greater Latrobe 35-24 in the quarterfinal round. The Falcons advanced to the quarterfinals by beating West Allegheny earlier in the evening 54-9, while the Wildcats advanced by beating Bethel Park 43-12.
“Connellsville is a great team and we knew we needed a strong performance from top to bottom,” Latrobe coach Marc Billick said. “I have nothing but respect for the Connellsville program and their coaches. They’ve been there before and the wrestle the best competition they can find. They have a great tradition here. For us to come in here and wrestle like we did and win is a credit to our team and the hard work they put forth all year.”
The match against the Wildcats started at 285 pounds, and Latrobe forfeited to Connellsville’s Justin Haines giving the Falcons a quick 6-0 lead.
The Wildcats charged back, taking the next five matches to open up a 19-6 lead.
The Latrobe run started at 103, where Ryan Walters edged Jerry Cramer 2-0. Nathan Pennesi followed that with a 10-0 major decision over Robert Myers at 112. Joey Walters and Steve Heide then scored decisions at 119 and 125 respectively, giving Latrobe a 13-6 lead, and Bill Lechner gave the Wildcats a big momentum swing, pinning John Freed in the second period.
Jared Dolde stopped the Latrobe run, edging Levi Hines 4-3 at 125 to make the score 19-9. Slade Harvey made it two in a row for the Falcons with a 10-4 decision over Phil Ferry at 140 to make it 19-12 before Andrew Snyder brought the Falcons back to within four with a 12-5 decision over Adam Heydorn at 145, making the score at 19-15.
The Wildcats came back with three straight wins to take the match. Defending state champion Ryan Goodman got a 12-4 major decision over Lee Newcomer at 152. In the 160-pound bout, Kameron Zitelli got a pin for the Wildcats, stopping Steve Blackburn in the second period to give them a 29-15 lead.
The Falcons still had a chance to come back and steal the match if they could win the last three matches, and get at least two pins, but Shawn Short sealed the match for Latrobe pinning Nathan Gaffney in the third period, making the score 35-15.
The Falcons came back to win the last two matches on a pin by Zach Benzio and a major decision by Matt Zavada.
“You’ve got to take the losses with the wins. You’re not going to win every match,” Falcons coach Tom Dolde said.
“You have to give Latrobe a lot of credit. They’ve gotten better during the season. They’re well coached and did a great job against us tonight. I like my team. We’re young and I’m sure they’ll learn from this. The key is how do you respond to a loss. Are you going to work to take your team to the next level or are you going to mope around. There will be no moping at Connellsville.
“We’ll go into the practice room and work even harder to get ready for the next part of the season.”