Wins add up as South Fayette edges McGuffey
Katie Roupe/Observer-Reporter South Fayette’s Ben Previte controls McGuffey’s Dillon Richey in the 160 pound bout. Previte won by fall at 3:47.
Katie Roupe/Observer-Reporter South Fayette’s Michael Cusick tries to escape from McGuffey’s Teague Nicolella in the final seconds of the ultimate tiebreaker in the 132 pound bout. Nicolella won 2-1 in ultimate tiebreaker.
Katie Roupe/Observer-Reporter South Fayette’s Rasaun Culberson brings McGuffey’s Edward Shingle to the ground in the 285 pound bout. Culberson won by fall at 1:29.
Katie Roupe/Observer-Reporter McGuffey’s Connor Thompson and South Fayette’s Mark Kurchena vie for control in the 195 pound bout during Wednesday night’s match. Thompson won by fall at 4:26.
CLAYSVILLE – When Freedom knocked off South Fayette in the finals of the Section 1-AA tournament, there weren’t many happy people in the Lions wrestling program, especially head coach Rick Chaussard.
When the head coach is upset, everyone notices.
“I don’t know how they took it,” said Chaussard. “I know I didn’t take it very well. That wasn’t one of our better efforts. We talked about it this week and I said that if we put forth that type of effort here, then we’d be going home. They stepped up. I made them change.”
The renewed attitude produced a 31-28 victory over McGuffey in the quarterfinals of the WPIAL Team Tournament Wednesday night. The win moves South Fayette (15-6) against top-seeded and No. 1-ranked Burrell in Saturday’s semifinals at noon at Chartiers-Houston High School. Freedom and Derry will wrestle in the other semifinal match.
The winners meet at 2 p.m. for the title and the losers wrestle side-by-side for the third and final berth in the PIAA Team Tournament, which begins next week.
“The last couple weeks, we haven’t been wrestling very well in dual meets,” Chaussard said. “They changed that (against McGuffey). We talk about bonus points but if every kid wins their matches, they can’t beat us.”
South Fayette won seven of the first eight bouts to establish a 31-6 lead, then watched as McGuffey clawed back, winning the final six bouts.
South Fayette got off to a great start with the 152-pound the opening weight. Defending state champion Mike Carr won a major decision from Christian Clutter, 14-5, and Ben Previte followed with a pin of Dillion Richey to make it 10-0.
Christian Dedi and Joe Bastaroli won decisions at 170 and 182, respectively, Dedi stopping Luke Shingle, 7-2, and Bastaroli edging Sam Velasco, 2-0.
“We moved Carr up to win more matches than them,” Chaussard said. “Our goal was for Mikey to win it, major, fall or tech. We’re trying to win all the matches.”
Connor Thompson brought a roar from the McGuffey crowd at 195 when he pinned Mark Kurchena in 4:26 to give the Highlanders their first points of the dual meet and cut the Lions lead to 16-6.
It didn’t last long as Cory Supan nipped Austin Fisher 3-2 at 220 and Rasaun Culberson pinned Ed Shingle in 1:29, putting South Fayette up, 25-6. Colin Dunn made it 31-6 with a pin in 1:18 of Collyn Bell.
That began McGuffey’s run.
“We never quit fighting,” said McGuffey head coach Mark Caffrey. “We thought we could win at 160 or 170.”
Caffrey said it’s hard trying to get pins because teams are taught how to ward them off.
“A team like South Fayette knows how to keep themselves closed up so you can’t get anything on them,” Caffrey said. “It’s smart on their part.”
Jake Garrety began McGuffey’s late run with a decision at 113 to make it 31-9. Jett Pattison (120) followed with a decision, Gage Nicolella (126) got a major decision and Teague Nicolella won a thrilling 2-1 decision over Mike Cusick in ultimate tiebreaker. Aaron Harris then won a 3-2 decision over Shane Ging to cut South Fayette’s lead to 31-22. It was Harris’ 100th victory and the match was stopped so a plaque could be presented at the middle of the mat.
South Fayette forfeited the final weight class, 145, to Jeff McConn.
McGuffey reached the quarterfinals with a 62-7 rout of South Side Beaver. South Fayette made it by dominating a surprising Mapletown team, 70-3. The Maples got to the first round with a win over Mt. Pleasant for fifth place in the section team event. It was the first postseason win for Mapletown since returning from a near three-decade hiatus of the program.
“It’s a good feeling for the program. I don’t think they feel real good now,” said Mapletown head coach Chris Shilk. “I tried to tell them the animal they were going to face here was different than we’ve been seeing all year. You can see how seasoned South Fayette was and was able to turn it up come tournament time. I hope our kids were able to see that.”