Jan 28, 2015 5 min read

JEFFERSON – As Jefferson-Morgan prepared for the WPIAL Class AA Team Tournament quarterfinals Wednesday night, head coach Mike Lesko saw his opposition’s strategy.

Burgettstown chose to have PJ Smith, who usually competes at 106 pounds, wrestle at 113. The move forced Lesko to readjust his lineup.

Freshman Gavin Teasdale received a forfeit to open the match, and in a stunning turn of events, J-M’s Josh Agnew pinned Smith in 1:25 at 113. When Lesko looked for a competitor at 120, he turned to unknown sophomore Damon Belford.

Belford had only wrestled two bouts this season and had yet to win, but Lesko remembered last season, when the 119-pounder won 15 bouts with all 15 coming by a pin using a headlock. Lesko turned to Belford to gauge his readiness. The soft-spoken underclassmen responded by saying, “Coach, if you give me a chance, I’ll get it done.”

He did it in style.

Belford grappled with the Blue Devils’ Jared Vraninin, saw his opponent turn his head and locked in for the headlock, twisting Vraninin to the mat for a pin in 25 seconds.

It was one of five pins the Rockets gathered on their way to a 45-25 victory to advance to the semifinals against top-seeded and defending champion Burrell. The semifinals will be Saturday at Canon-McMillan.

“I was excited. I just wanted to get out there and help my team,” Belford said. “He tied up the right way and I hit it.”

I was trying to wear him down. He gave me an opportunity for a headlock and I was going to hit it.

The victory sends the Rockets to the WPIAL Class AA semifinals for the fourth consecutive season where they will compete at Canon-McMillan High School Saturday at 1 p.m.

“(Belford) never got a win yet this season and he caught him in a headlock to pin him,” Jefferson-Morgan head coach Mike Lesko said. “He’s had two matches and we’ve fed him to wolves. He got it done and that was huge. Winning those early weights motivated us to win the whole thing.”

After Belford’s critical pin gave Jefferson-Morgan an 18-0 lead, Burgettstown’s Austin McDermitt collected a pin at 1:26 and the Rockets’ Brandon Howard won by decision over Austin Riffle at 132 for a 21-6 lead.

The Blue Devils roared back behind a major decision victory by Darrell Bails (138) before Jefferson-Morgan earned back-to-back victories for the 30-10 advantage. At 160, Burgettstown’s Tyler Nicholson came close to a pin on several occasions, but J-M’s Parker Woodring had two escapes in the last minute to earn a 4-3 win by decision.

Burgettstown won three of the final bouts, but it was too late.

“We came in and gave up some falls early. We knew it was going to be an uphill battle coming into it and they got some pins when they needed them,” Burgettstown head coach Terry Havelka said. “That set the tone early. We’re thinking our six can go a little bit and hopefully at 20 we can go a bit, but we gave up two pins there. That’s critical to start out.”

Jefferson-Morgan advanced to the quarterfinals with a 62-15 victory over Keystone Oaks as the Rockets received four forfeits and gathered four pins from Howard (126), Mylan (132), Kniha (160), Bowlen (182) and Wolfe (285).

Belford did not have to wrestle in the first bout and won by forfeit, while Teasdale, one of the top-ranked wrestlers in the country, did not wrestle Wednesday night after winning by forfeit in both matches.

Burgettstown advanced with a 40-30 win over Beth-Center, which had a resurgence this season behind its middle weights. The Blue Devils led 30-3 after four pins by McDermitt, Riffle and Bails, but the Bulldogs stormed back with pins by Bruce Leonard (138) and Robert Work (152) as they trailed 36-15 with five bouts remaining.

Though Jason Stay (160) and Anthony Welsh (170) won by decision, and Nico Brown (195) had a prolific pin on a cradle, Burgettstown’s Tristan Nicholson (182) clinched the victory with a major decision. The match was stopped on a dozen occasions for bloody noses and open wounds. Though the Bulldogs fell short, first-year head coach Gary Welsh was pleased with how his team responded to adversity.

“This is the first time we’ve been to the team tournament in I don’t know how long,” Welsh said. “Even winning the section was a huge step. It’s a building block. We aren’t quite where we need to be, but we’re building our numbers at the middle school level and the kids are seeing what it takes to win.”

The Rockets’ first match ended early, allowing the wrestlers watch their opponent in the quarterfinals. The down time didn’t hurt as Jefferson-Morgan prevented Burgettstown from exacting revenge from last season when the Rockets eliminated the Blue Devils in the third-place match.

Before defeating the Blue Devils, Lesko promised his team he would buy them Bob Evans if they held a seven-point lead before the final bout. Behind his unsung sophomore and a solid lineup, a hefty bill awaits the Rockets’ head coach.

“You lose that group last year and you just rebuild, rebuild,” Lesko said. “Can we get there again? Can we do it? Well, they did it. They came to wrestle. They all won it.”