Waynesburg Central advances to semis
WAYNESBURG – Waynesburg Central advanced to the WPIAL Class AAA semifinals Tuesday night, thanks in large part to the fresh legs of Troy Cree and a key victory by sophomore Nick Patton. The Raiders won a pair of matches, the first being a 37-27 first-round decision over Chartiers Valley, and the second being a hard-fought 35-22 quarterfinal-round victory over Canon-McMillan.
Waynesburg now faces top-seeded Hempfield Thursday night at 8 p.m. at Gateway High School.
“Our kids have been looking forward to this for some time,” said Raiders coach John Yates. “We didn’t know if it would be in the first round, quarterfinals or whenever, but our kids are excited.
“We know what a powerful team Hempfield is from top to bottom, but we won’t back down.”
Against Canon-McMillan, the match was tied at 13 when Patton squared off against Josh Totterdale at 140 pounds. Totterdale led 2-1 after one period, but a reversal and near fall gave Patton a 6-2 advantage with 1:07 left in the second period.
Seconds later, Patton worked his way into position and ended the bout with a fall to give Waynesburg a 19-13 lead.
“That was a point when we needed a spark in a close match,” Yates said. “Nick just broke it open.”
The decisive series of moves was made possible after Patton brought down Totterdale with force and appeared to at least temporarily stun the Big Mac wrestler.
“I’ve never had a bigger win,” Patton said. “I try to bring my opponent down hard, and that gives me a little more time to work my next move. I did that to him (Totterdale), and after I put him down, I hurried up and tried to put him on his side. But it wasn’t easy.”
Waynesburg’s Jon DiBuono and Ethan Headlee followed Patton’s win with respective 5-0 decisions, DiBuono’s coming over Colin Ryan, and Headlee’s coming over Mike Eberly.
Down 25-13, Canon-McMillan’s Matt Ryan won by fall over Scott Throckmorton in 2:58 to pull the Big Macs to within six points, but the Raiders’ Clint Podish took an 8-3 decision over Robert Mamula to push the hosts’ lead back to nine.
At 189 pounds, Canon-McMillan’s Jurdon Maier decisioned Keith Higginbotham, 6-2, to cut the Big Macs’ deficit to 28-22 before Cree stepped in at 215 pounds against Nick Lopez.
Cree came into the bout fresher than most of the wrestlers after not seeing action in the first round. Yates elected to save Cree for the quarterfinals after Waynesburg (22-3) clinched its opening match with three bouts remaining.
After a scoreless first period, Lopez elected to start the second period down and Cree was able to ride him out the entire two minutes. Then, Cree started the third period in the prone position and needed just 10 seconds to score a reversal, which gave him the only two points of the bout.
“Troy proved why he’s such a good competitor,” Yates said. “He wrestled a big, strong athlete and he wrestled smart.”
Waynesburg’s Robert Gregg capped the match with a 14-3 major decision over Jon Moyer at heavyweight.
The quarterfinals started with Waynesburg’s Jonathan Remsing picking up a forfeit at 103 pounds, before Canon-McMillan’s Ron Schram won by fall over Dan McElroy to tie the score at 6.
The Raiders’ Matt Headlee then picked up a hard-fought 2-0 decision over Sam Lombardo at 119 pounds to give the hosts a 9-6 edge. Leading 2-0, Headlee was on the verge of pinning Lombardo midway through the final period, only to have the Big Macs wrestler turn the tables on him with a flip which almost resulted in a near fall of his own.
But Headlee called an injury timeout that wound up killing Lombardo’s momentum, and he was able to protect his two-point lead for the remainder of the period.
The see-saw match continued when the Big Macs’ Colin Johnston took a 7-0 decision over Brian Knapp, before Waynesburg’s Nick Garber and Canon-McMillan’s Christopher Pihou traded major decisions to leave the score tied at 13.
“I’ve got to give Waynesburg credit, they’re a very physical team,” said Canon-McMillan coach Chris Mary. “But I’m very proud of our effort. Every kid gave a good effort tonight. It was a good, hard-fought match. They just had a couple stronger weight classes than we did. We’re a couple weight classes right now from going further in the playoffs.”