DuBois Beavers outlast BEA wrestlers, 35-34

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

WINGATE - The DuBois wrestling team struggled to score bonus points in its two losses at the PIAA Team Wrestling Championships last week in Hershey, but the ability to get those extra points proved to be the difference Tuesday in a 35-34 victory at Bald Eagle Area.
DuBois (14-2) still appeared to have a bit of a hangover from the trip to Hershey and didn't wrestle up to its potential Tuesday as the Eagles won eight of the 14 bouts.
However, the Beavers scored bonus points in all six its wins and ended up needing all of those extra points (17) to come away with the win.
The Beavers got key pins from Tom Sleigh, Shane Marshall and Landon Hanna, while teammates Garrett Brown and Dylan Zimmerman each received forfeit wins.
Sleigh bumped up a weight class in getting his fall, while Marshall scored a huge third-period pin while trailing in his bout at 160. Hanna kept his season-long roll going with an impressive first-period fall over Eagle Aaron Varner.
DuBois' sixth win was a 16-1 technical fall by Anthony Vizza.
Those six bonus point victories help offset three pins by BEA and a huge 2-1 tiebreaker win by Eagle Jake Taylor over Geno Morelli at 170. The contest was a preview of a potential PIAA Class AAA Northwest Regional showdown as Morelli has made the decision to move up to 170 for the postseason.
"After going down to states, and it was a good weekend all-around for everybody, I was little worried about having a hangover tonight," said Beavers head coach Luke Bundy. "And overall, our effort wasn't there. That's what I'm most disappointed about is our effort.
"Even though we got a win tonight, hopefully this kind of gives them a little wake up call. We won't know if the wake up call was received until we get practice (today) and see if they come in ready to work or ready to pack it in for year. That's a decision the kids have to make."
The match started at the traditional 106-pound weight class, and the teams traded wins in the first five bouts.
Travis Giedroc got BEA off to a solid start with a 4-1 win over Bryce Swauger at 106.
Giedroc scored a first-period takedown, then a penalty point and escape in the third for the win.
Vizza countered with his tech fall of Jacob Noll at 113. Vizza scored two takedowns and two sets of backpoints in the first period to lead 9-1, then scored an escape, takedown and three nearfall points in the second.
Leading 15-1, the bout was stopped 11 seconds into the third when Vizza was awarded a penalty point.
Bald Eagle answered right back with a 12-2 win by Cody Stine over Cody Cox, but Brown's forfeit win at 126 gave the Beavers an 11-7 advantage.
The Eagles then posted back-to-back wins at 132 and 138 to regain the lead at 16-11. Clint McCaslin topped Beaver Andrew Williams 5-1 at 132, while teammate Matt Dillon pinned D.J. Carney in 2:40 at 138. Dillon was leading 8-1 at the time of the fall.
DuBois quickly got the lead back at 145 when Zimmerman received a forfeit. Bundy then bumped Sleigh up to 152, and the move paid off with Sleigh getting six big points.
Sleigh quickly took down Eagle Tyler Baney, then hooked a cradle on his for three backpoints and a 5-0 lead.
Sleigh started down in the second but didn't stay there long as he reversed Baney and eventually got the pin with 20 seconds left in the period.
Marshall then took the mat against BEA's Dustin Coakley and found himself down 3-0 early in the second period when he scored a takedown. However, Coakley escaped and got a takedown of his own to lead 6-2 after two periods.
Marshall chose neutral in the third and wasted little time hitting a big move as he used a mixer to put Coakley on his back and get the fall 19 seconds in to the period. Marshall's pin gave the Beavers a 29-16 lead.
"Shane fought back and got a big pin for us, and that turns out to be one of the deciding factors," said Bundy. "He should have probably not been down in that match to begin with because we're a lot better, but to regroup and get the fall - that was big win for us tonight."
Taylor followed with his hard-fought 2-1 win over Morelli at 170. The duo battled on their feet most of the match, trading escapes in the second and third periods. After a scoreless overtime period, the bout went the double-overtime tiebreaker periods.
Taylor chose bottom in the first 30-second period and escaped with 14 seconds left, then held down Morelli in the second 30-second period to come away with the 2-1 victory. The loss was just the third of the season for Morelli (26-3).
"When you leave people in the match, and Taylor's a good kid, anything can happen," said Bundy. "We definitely need to open up and start hitting some shots on our feet. If his (Morelli's) aspiration is to win a state title, you need to take some people down and we need to open up on our feet for that to happen. If we don't open up, it could be a rough tournament for us."
Bald Eagle's James Grieb followed up Taylor's big win by pinning Beaver Brady Haines in 3:44 at 182.
Hanna returned the favor at 195, as he quickly shot on Varner and hit a standing cradle on a single leg. Hanna took down the Eagle and kept the cradle locked in despite Varner's attempts to roll through the move and secured the fall in 44 seconds. Hanna's pin gave DuBois a 10-point lead (35-25) with two bouts remaining.
"With Landon this year, he's stepped up big and got the job done every time he's out on mat," said Bundy.
DuBois' Nick Davido then sealed the Beavers win despite losing at 220. Davido fell 7-3 to BEA's Ben Verbitsky, but the regular decision meant the Eagles couldn't catch DuBois in the final bout.
And that proved to be key as Bald Eagle's Nate Sharkey pinned Kyle Dixon in 5:26 at heavyweight to set the final at 35-34. Sharkey was winning 9-0 at the time of his fall.
DuBois ends its dual-meet schedule at Punxsutawney Thursday.

Reported by Chris Wechtenhiser, C-E Assistant Sports Editor. Email:chrisw@thecourierexpress.com