close

Belle Vernon gives all in close loss to Panthers

By Mike Dudurich for The 3 min read

PENN HILLS — It’s amazing that something as simple as the flip of the coin could play as big a role as it does in wrestling, but it sure did on Saturday at the WPIAL Class AAA Team Championships at Penn Hills High School.

For Belle Vernon Area wrestling coach Mike Doppelhauer, it was the biggest factor in his team’s 33-27 loss in the finals against Franklin Regional.

“If we win the flip, it’s a different match,” Doppelhauer said. “Being able to put out onto the mat who we want first, makes a big difference. Our kids wrestled hard, and they wrestled great. The flip and bonus points made the difference today.”

The Leopards had to survive a tough battle with Latrobe in the semifinal match, eventually subduing the Wildcats, 35-25. It was tense throughout, but it was nothing like the match against the powerful Panthers.

Belle Vernon got off to a quick starting, winning the first five bouts and jumped out to a 21-0 lead. With the match starting at 182 pounds, it was imperative that the Leopards get all the bonus points they could at 195 and 220 instead of just getting three for a regulation win.

But the Leopards came up with a pair of decisions from Milton Kaboly at 195 and Michael Fine at 220 and those bonus points were ones BVA would miss dearly later.

Franklin Regional won three of next four bouts to get back into things, but the one they lost was a big one.

Devon Brown, the nationally-ranked 113-pounder for FR, moved up a weight and faced BVA’s talented freshman, Zach Hartman. He was 30-4 coming into Saturday, but picked up two wins, including an 8-5 battle with Brown.

“That was a heck of a big match,” Dopplehauer said.

“Hartman is bigger and stronger at 120, he deserved that win,” Franklin Regional coach Eric Mausser said.

The two behemoths of WPIAL Class AAA wrestling went back and forth and, with four bouts to go, Belle Vernon led 27-14.

But those four were right in Franklin Regional’s wheelhouse.

Michael Kemerer, who missed the FR’s loss to Belle Vernon in the Franklin Regional duals, knocked of Jarod Verklereen at 145; Joe Maruca laid a 13-4 major decision on Derek Verklereen; Josh Shields pinned Josh Godzin and then the match came down to a battle of unheralded sophomores.

And on this late afternoon, Franklin Regional’s Ryan Deloach pinned Ian Pollata in 2:29, breaking the 27-27 tie.

“I’m not concerned about our guys,” Doppelhauer said. “We’ll be back next week (at the state team tournament). We’re set up pretty good in those brackets from what I can see. We’re looking forward to getting up there.”

The Leopards and Panthers qualified for the PIAA Tournament, while third-place finisher North Allegheny will wrestle a pigtail match Monday to get to Hershey.

Mausser was sweating bullets for a while when the Leopards jumped out quickly, but he knew he had a few aces in the hole.

“From 138 on, we have guys ranked in the top 10 in the country, so that helps a little bit,” he said. “As far as that last match, we really had no clue how our kid was going to wrestle or react. You never know with sophomores.”

Mausser was also pleased with the win because it avenged the earlier loss to Belle Vernon.

“That motivated our kids, absolutely,” he said. “Mike was sick that first time and we wrestled them tough but just came up short. Belle Vernon is tough, very talented.”

The title was Franklin Regional’s second straight.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $4.79/week.

Subscribe Today