Eagles can feel Easton’s pain
By BRIAN FORTNER
The Express-Times
HERSHEY, Pa. — This was supposed to be the dream matchup and the culmination of a fairytale season, pitting the top two teams in The Express-Times region — Easton and Nazareth — against each other with a state championship on the line.
The dream matchup turned out to be just that — a dream. Connellsville Area High School took care of that, defeating Nazareth 35-19 Saturday in the morning semifinals of the PIAA Class AAA Team Championships at the Giant Center.
The District 7 champion Falcons stormed into the title match where they stunned heavily-favored Easton 34-25, putting an end to the Red Rovers’ string of four consecutive team championships.
The Blue Eagles went on to lose again — 32-29 to Kiski Area in a consolation match.
“We made good progress through the course of this season, “Nazareth coach Dave Crowell said. “We got our lineup solidified. We got continually better and thought we could go with some of these teams here.”
Connellsville (28-3) won nine of 14 bouts against the District 11 runners-up, collecting a pair of falls and two major decisions.
The difference came at 135 pounds where state placewinner Ashtin Primus gave the Falcons a commanding 28-14 lead by pinning Nazareth’s super sophomore Tim Darling in 3:37.
Darling (34-2), who placed third in the state at 119 as a freshman, led 2-0 after one period with Primus taking the bottom position to start the second.
“That was a matchup that we wanted, “Crowell said. “We thought we would win that one.”
The Falcons’ junior tied the score with a reversal, locked up a cradle and pinned Darling to ignite the Connellsville crowd while deflating the Blue Eagles in the process.
Primus’ pin came on the heels of Steven Bell’s second-period fall over Mike Greck at 130.
Greck and Bell each weighed in at 125, but when Crowell opted to send out Mario Giordano, Connellsville chose to chase Greck up at 130.
Giordano led Mike Zavada 4-3 with one period remaining, but couldn’t seal the deal.
Zavada cradled Giordano for three back points to start the final period, and then held on for a 6-5 decision.
“When we didn’t get the coin flip, we knew we could have problems, “said Crowell, who won two Class AA team titles while coaching at Wilson. “I don’t know if it would’ve made a difference anyway. It would’ve helped us control the matchups, but Connellsville wrestled real well against us.”
Bell, a fourth-place finisher in the state at 119 a year ago, followed and built a 14-4 lead before flattening Greck in 3:25.
Zach Snyder sealed the victory and extended the Connellsville lead to 31-14 with three bouts left with a 6-0 victory over Phil Santee at 140.
Thad Frick put the Blue Eagles up 4-0 with a 14-6 major decision over Buddy Sines at 160.
The Falcons won the next three bouts to take a 10-4 lead. Decisions by Mike Mutch (275) and Scott Rider (103) tied the score at 10 before Andrew Flegler put the Eagles ahead 14-10 with an 8-0 major decision over Kody Pujia at 112.
Then at 119, the Falcons recorded another win where the Blue Eagles were considered to be favored.
Falcons senior Jake Knepper (8-3) scored an impressive 7-1 decision over Andrew Ritchie to cut Nazareth’s lead to 14-13.
“We knew (Knepper) was good, “Crowell said. “We have a connection that told us not to be deceived by his record. I don’t know the situation as to why he’s not in the lineup fulltime. He came up big for them today.”
Wrestling Gear
