Walker helps propel South Fayette to semifinals
Michael Dedi pins Joseph Berish to get South Fayette off to a fast start during its WPIAL AA quarterfinal playoff match against Beth-Center. Dedi’s fall was one of five as the Lions defeated the Bulldogs, 52-22, and moved into the semifinals set for noon on Feb. 4 at Chartiers-Houston.
Dominic Fundy works on pinning Tydan Johnston. Fundy's fall enabled Beth-Center to beat Chartiers-Houston, 39-30, in first round WPIAL Class AA team tournament action. With the win, the Bulldogs advanced to face South Fayette in the quarterfinals.
Joe Bastaroli puts Maverick Sullenberger on his back en route to a pin during WPIAL Class AA team tournament action. Bastaroli's fall helped South Fayette post a 52-22 victory.
McDONALD – After losing state champion Mike Carr and other solid seniors such as Shane Ging, Ben Previte and Rasuan Culberson to graduation, some felt this might be a down season for the South Fayette wrestling team.
They were wrong.
The Lions just reloaded this season, making a point of that by advancing to the WPIAL Class AA Team Tournament semifinals Wednesday night, rolling to a pair of wins, 75-6 over Summit Academy in the first round, then topping Beth-Center, 52-22, in the quarterfinals at South Fayette High School.
“Coach (Rick) Chaussard does a great job and they’ve got quality wrestlers throughout their lineup,” said Beth-Center head coach Gary Welsh. “I know that was the talk, that they would be down. We got to see them at the Chartiers-Houston Tournament at the beginning of the year. Where they’re at now from where they were at at Chartiers-Houston, he’s done a great job developing that team.”
And pulling some wrestlers out of retirement.
Junior Jake Walker, who took last season off to spend time in the weight room for football, came back out for the team this season. He was a big part of South Fayette’s success last night, recording a pair of pins from his 220-pound spot in the lineup.
Walker was missing for that early season tournament because of a hand injury suffered during football season, but has been a big boost to South Fayette’s lineup since returning. He improved to 17-2 with his two wins last night.
“The first couple of weeks, I couldn’t do much, just conditioning,” said Walker, whose older brothers, Jared and Zach were standouts on the mat for the Lions. “I had to stay out of live action.
“It wasn’t fun just watching them wrestle with me sitting out.”
Walker hasn’t been the only standout. South Fayette will take a battle-tested group into Saturday’s WPIAL semifinals at Chartiers-Houston, where, again, Burrell figures to be the team to beat.
Before South Fayette faces the 10-time defending champions, it will have to get past a solid Freedom team.
“It’s possible,” said Chaussard when asked if his team could beat Burrell. “But we’ve got to beat whoever is across from us first.”
Chaussard questioned whether that might be possible with this team as recently as last week, when the Lions struggled to beat Valley, 37-31, in the first round of the Section 3-AA tournament, then lost to Burrell, 41-25.
But the Lions looked more focused Wednesday night.
“That was kind of what we talked about,” Chaussard said. “The way we wrestled last week, I didn’t think we wrestled up to our capabilities last week and even over the weekend at the Bedford Tournament. To be honest, I thought we were awful.”
What changed?
“I don’t know,” Chaussard said. “Maybe it was what we did at practice. I reiterated that if we kept wrestling the way we were wrestling, it was going to be a short stay in the postseason.”
Against Beth-Center, Michael Dedi and Joe Bastaroli got South Fayette off to a good start with pins at 160 and 170. The Bulldogs were then forced to forfeit at 182 because junior Garrett Dillon was out with an illness.
“It hurt a lot,” said Welsh. “But I’m not going to make any excuses about it. Obviously, it changes our game plan with what we could do as far as bumping.”
Dominic Fundy, Beth-Center’s usual 182-pounder, bumped up to 195 and recorded a pin, but Walker came back with a quick pin at 220 to keep the Bulldogs, who had advanced with a 39-30 win over Chartiers-Houston, from gaining momentum and giving South Fayette a 24-6 lead.
That proved big after David Headlee picked up a pin at heavyweight to cut the lead in half, 24-12. But Noah Broyles picked up a hard-fought 4-2 win at 106 and Colin Dunn followed with a pin at 113 to stretch the advantage to 33-12.
Jimmy Gwyer had a pin for the Bulldogs at 120, but an Eli Brinsky pin at 126 made it 39-18 before Cort Blatz picked up a 3-2 decision at 132 to put the match away.
So much for the down year.
“It’s funny,” said Walker. “I guess we just like being the underdog.”