Freshmen come through for Saucon Valley
Panthers top Muncy to advance to quarters; ND-GP falls to Reynolds
HERSHEY — Saucon Valley’s freshmen lightweights Connor Nicholas and Cael Markle were pacing off their nerves at the Giant Center when assistant coach Tommy Rohn stopped for a pep talk.
“Believe in yourself,” Rohn told them. With that, the freshmen delivered a critical pair of pins to seal Saucon Valley’s 38-22 win over Muncy at the PIAA 2A team wrestling tournament. The victory sent unbeaten Saucon Valley to a quarterfinal matchup Friday against District 7 champ Burrell.
And the freshmen hope to make the most of it again.
“Coach said, ‘Let’s go, let’s win this, you’ve got to win this,’” Nicholas said. “Yeah, it was fun.”
Elsewhere in the first round, Reynolds defeated Notre Dame-Green Pond 47-18 in a match that featured two of the state’s top wrestlers. Notre Dame freshman Ryan Crookham, ranked No. 1 at 120 pounds according to papowerwrestling.com, defeated No. 2 Beau Bayless, a 2017 state champ, 6-1.
For Saucon Valley (19-0), the victory helped cleanse the memory of early losses at states the past two years. In 2016, the Panthers reached the statetitle match, which some of the five freshmen in Thursday’s lineup watched in person.
Nicholas was among them, though he didn’t expect to be wrestling at the Giant Center so soon. But with 106pounder Chris Arciuolo injured, Nicholas took over the spot, consistently improved and clinched Thursday’s win over Muncy.
“That’s what you need to do,” Saucon Valley coach Chad Shirk said. “Have kids step up when their time’s called, and Connor’s been stepping up. He’s had a great attitude, and we’re certainly proud of him.”
Saucon Valley led 22-19 when heavyweight Nick Warnke generated the first of three falls that propelled the victory. All were in the first round.
Nicholas’ win actually clinched the victory, though Markle polished the score with a fall in 25 seconds. The freshman had defeated Muncy’s Chase Crawley 4-0 during a regular-season tournament, so Shirk liked the matchup again — even though Markle weighed in nearly five pounds lighter than Crawley.
“I was nervous but I had to come up big for this match,” Markle said.
Shirk thought Saucon Valley wrestled a fairly complete match, considering the youth in its lineup. Senior Josh Jones (132) jump-started the team with an eight-second pin, and Thomas Spirk added a technical fall.
Nick Rosengrant, Matt Arciuolo and Braydyn Lugardo added decisions, and even some of the losses were tight. Freshman Dante Mahaffey (160) nearly hit a takedown with 2 seconds left, but it went uncalled, resulting in an 8-7 loss.
“With so many freshmen in the lineup, this win meant a lot,” Shirk said. “You get out here on the big stage and you don’t know how they’re going to perform. It was good to see those kids step up. They battled, and I’m happy for them.”
Saucon Valley’s difficult draw continues in Friday’s quarterfinals. Its half of the bracket includes four of the state’s top-five teams, according to papowerwrestling.com: No. 1 Reynolds, No. 3 Saucon Valley, No. 4 Muncy and No. 5 Burrell. The quarterfinals are scheduled to begin at noon.
Notre Dame-Green Pond, the District 11 runner-up, will wrestle Faith Christian in the consolation round, which begins at 8 a.m. Friday. Faith Christian is coached by Ben Clymer, who won won a state title at Northwestern Lehigh and wrestled at Hofstra.
Crookham capped Notre Dame’s first-round match with a dominating performance against Bayless, a threetime state medalist with 140 career wins. Crookham rode Bayless through the second period, then turned a third-period escape into a five-point move.