Waynesburg punches ticket to team finals
Joe Tuscano/Observer-Reporter
Waynesburg Rocco Welsh has Adam Rohan of North Allegheny in trouble in their 152-pound bout Wednesday.
Adam Rohan (back) lifts Waynesburg's Rocco Welsh during their 152-pound battle Wednesday night.
By Joe Tuscano/Staff writer/jtuscano@observer-reporter.com
Luca Augustine of Waynesburg works for a pin of Travis Stipetich of North Allegheny at 172 pounds Wednesday night.
Wyatt Henson (top) of Waynesburg works for control of Max Stedeford of North Allegheny during their 145-pound match Wednesday.
CANONSBURG – It’s hard enough to wrestle Waynesburg High School under normal conditions.
To wrestle, and defeat, Waynesburg when the Raiders are fresh and rested, well that’s a different story.
A rejuvenated Raiders, who had a first-round bye in the WPIAL Class AAA Team Tournament, stormed out to a 29-3 lead and cruised to a 51-9 victory over North Allegheny Wednesday night at Canon-McMillan High School.
The victory sends the top-ranked Raiders to Saturday’s finals at 2:30 p.m., also to be held at Canon-McMillan. Their opponent will be No.2-ranked Seneca Valley, a 42-24 winner oVer Connellsville in the other semifinal.
And there will be no time off during this match. The Raiders had a bye in the first round of this tournament when Kiski pulled out to rest its wrestlers and prepare for the individual postseason.
The two matches Waynesburg wrestled in the Section 4 Tournament had to feel like byes. The wins took a combined 60 minutes and the Raiders only gave up 12 points on two forfeits.
“We’re ready to wrestle,” said Waynesburg head coach Joe Throckmorton. “We love to wrestle. We’d rather westle because it gets us warmed up. Look at Powerade. Our boys are used to wrestling seven, eight times (over a weekend).”
The Raiders started off hot against NA when returning state champion Wyatt Henson won a 9-3 decision over Max Stedeford at 145 pounds and Rocco Welsh won by 20-5 technical fall over Adam Rohan for an 8-0 lead.
Collin McCorkle then defeated Waynesburg’s Nate Stephenson 3-1 in overtime for the Raiders’ first competitive points allowed in the postseason.
Luca Augustine got that back and then some when he pinned Travis Stipetich in 2:47 at 172.
Eli Makel eked out a 1-0 win over Aidan Buggey at 189 and Noah Tustin and Ryan Howard put the match away with back-to-back pins before making the turn.
“I’m just keeping my pace, looking for an opening and getting my pin,” said Howard, who has pins in four straight matches. “The time off helps me because I can get some time to rest before a big match.”
Ky Szewczyk kept the momentum going for the Raiders at 106, where he won a 16-7 major decision over Casey Walker.
Joe Simon got a pin of Sam Horton at 113 and Mac Church followed with a 4-1 decision over Dylan Coy, one of North Allegheny’s best wrestlers, at 120 pounds.
Zander Phatorus is still on the mend from a toe injury so Waynesburg forfeited at 126 to Nick Gorman.
Waynesburg finished by winning a 3-1 decision by Colten Stoneking at 132 and a pin by Cole Homet at 138.
“We train all year so that we can show people how good we are and it sucks when we don’t wrestle and get to show people how good we are,” said Welsh. “We only lost one match and the forfeit was because Zander wasn’t here. All together, we looked really good and I think we’re going to be state (team) champs.”
Class AA
Burgettstown is heading to the WPIAL Class AA finals.
The undefeated Blue Devils punched their ticket to the final with a 48-11 victory over Section 1 rival Beth-Center in the semifinals.
Burgettstown will face 14-time defending champion Burrell in the finals Saturday at Canon-McMillan High School. It will be a rematch of last year’s title matchup.
Burgettstown, which defeated B-C in the finals of the section team tournament last week, repeated its performance by winning each of the first five weight classes and forging a commanding 23-(minus-1) lead. The Bulldogs were deducted one team point.
Gaven Suica (120) had a fall that gave Burgettstown a 14-0 lead. Ryan Greene (172) clinched the victory for the Blue Devils with a third-period fall.
Tyler Berish (145) had a technical fall for the Bulldogs.
Beth-Center advanced to the semifinals with a 45-28 victory over Montour in the opening round.
The Bulldogs never trailed in the match and two pins and a forfeit win in the middleweights opened a big lead. Trevor Pettit (160) clinched the win for B-C with a fall that gave the Bulldogs a 39-18 lead with three bouts remaining.
Heavyweight Joshua Deems gave Beth-Center a 6-0 lead, and Davis Stepp’s decision at 113 put the Bulldogs in the lead for good. Kyle McCollum (132), Tyler Debnar (138) and Alston Csutoros (215) all had pins for Beth-Center.