Big Macs upper weights seal victory over Trinity
Canon-McMillan’s Anthony Mastrangelo controls Trinity’s Michael Hertig in the 138 pound bout. Mastrangelo won with a 3-0 decision.
Canon-McMillan’s Isaac Miles and Trinity’s Dante Cecchine wrestle during the 152 pound bout on Wednesday, December 9. Miles won 18-14.
Canon-McMillan coaches shout to the official for two points during the 126 pound bout of Michael Kalosky and Matt Oblock. Trinity’s Kolosky won with a 6-3 decision.
Trinity’s Michael Kalosky controls Canon-McMillan’s Matt Oblock in the 126 pound bout. Kalosky won with a 6-3 decision.
CANONSBURG – Mark Powell said he wanted to close the gap between Trinity’s wrestling program and arch-rival Canon-McMillan.
For a while, it seemed the Hillers head coach might get his wish. Trinity trailed by just two points eight bouts into the Wednesday night’s dual meet.
That’s when the Big Macs unleashed their powerful heavyweights on Trinity, getting a technical fall and three pins that produced a convincing 43-18 victory in the section 4-A opener for these class AAA teams.
“I think we’re strong in the upper weights,” said Tommy James, a 182-pounder who had one of the pins in the run. “We work hard in practice and even some of the coaches beat up on us so that definitely helps. We weren’t nervous (when it was 17-15) because we knew we had the advantage in the upper weights. We could get the ball rolling when we wanted to get the ball rolling.”
Blaze Kansco began the run with a 15-0 technical fall over Jared Rice at 170 to push Canon-McMillan’s lead to 22-15. James followed with a pin of Justin Ritter in 4:25 at 182, Nick Konyk stuck Xane Stock in 1:40 and David Ainscough needed 1:57 to put away Jacob Dobish at 195. The Big Macs lead was 40-15 after that run.
The run was even more important because the Big Macs were without Micah Kusturiss at 160 because of injury and they forfeited there. That made the score 17-15.
“I knew we had the firepower up top to make up for that,” said Canon-McMillan head coach Jason Cardillo. “We lost a couple of close ones but later in the season, those guys will be better.”
Maybe the most entertaining bout came at 152, where Isaac Miles survived a wild and unpredictable 18-15 decision over Dante Cecchini. Miles, coming back from knee surgery that kept him out last year, tweaked the knee midway through the bout and used all injury time. He gutted out the final two minutes, and even outscored Cecchini 7-5 in that span, for the win.
“I think both guys at one point were pinned,” Cardillo said with a smile on his face. “It was hard to say who was pinned first, but it ended up being a crazy match. It’s fun for the fans. It’s like a bar fight, reversal, backpoints, escape, reversal. He gutted it out.”
Trinity fell behind 11-0 on Logan Macri’s technical fall at 113 and Justin Celento’s pin at 120. But the Hillers won four of the next six to make it 17-15 after 160. Mike Kolosky had a 6-3 win over Matt Oblock at 126 and Ryan Yocum shut out Dimitri Pihiou at 132 to highlight the run.
“The score wasn’t indicative of how close the match really was,” said Trinity head coach Mark Powell. “If we had a couple of the close, barnburners go our way, it’s a different match. I think for being our first match, nerves got us a little. We pushed the match … and that’s the way we wanted it to be.”
In another interesting matchup, Trinity heavyweight Austin Fife decisioned Brendan Furman 6-3 in a close bout.
“Everyone thought I was crazy when I said I thought Fife was going to beat Furman,” Powell said. “And he did. So three of our four big guns stepped up with wins.”
Besides Kusturiss, the Big Macs were without Tim Hritsko and Declan Lewis, who are nursing injuries.
“I think this team can be very good,” said James. “We have a couple kids who are injured right now. Once we got all the guys back, we’ll be even stronger.”And it would not be a surprise to anyone if these two teams met in the WPIAL Team Tournament.
“We’re a work in progress,” Cardillo said. “We don’t have all the pieces in place just yet.”