Kuzior fills key spot, sparks Burgettstown
BURGETTSTOWN – In a battle of senior football players on the wrestling mat, Burgettstown’s Brodie Kuzior rallied for a 12-8 decision over McGuffey’s Dylan Droboj in the 215-pound weight class Wednesday night at Burgettstown Area Middle/Senior High School.
Kuzior’s victory, which was the first in his four-work career, helped propel the Blue Devils to a 42-27 victory in Class 2A Section 1 action.
“This is my first year wrestling and Coach (Joey) Vigliotti said I should come out for the team after football season,” Kuzior said. “The conditioning in wrestling is insane, and (assistant) Coach Lou (Vigliotti) told me before the match that I had nothing to lose, so I just came out here, went for it, and I couldn’t think of a better way to win my first match. I knew I had to come up big and get a win for my brothers because we were struggling a little bit there.”
Kuzior had a 6-2 lead over Droboj after the second period, but the Highlander scored a five-point in the third for a 7-6 advantage. Kuzior was penalized one point for an illegal headlock, but escaped and threw Droboj to his back as time wound down in the match.
“As little as our school is, we have to pull kids out of the hallway,” Burgettstown head coach Joey Vigliotti said. “We also have to pull out some basketball and football players, and that’s what we’ve done, and it won us a WPIAL title last year.
“Obviously, we have some studs in our lineup, but the rest are filled with kids that we pulled out of our own hallway. Brodie is a hard worker and heart won that match. For a kid like Brodie, I think, and I’m sure he will say so, too, that wrestling is a sport he should have been doing his whole life. He is starting to get it now, and it is only up from here for him.”
Joey Baronick (285) won by forfeit at 285 to clinch the dual meet, as Burgettstown had a 15-point lead with two bouts remaining. The teams traded falls in the last two bouts, as the Blue Devils’ Darius Simmons (107) won by fall in three minutes and McGuffey’s Tucker Main (114) closed the evening with a pin in 27 seconds.
The Highlanders (1-1, 6-1) dropped their first dual meet of the season, but coach Jared Roberts is confident his team can bounce back, as they wrestle Fort Cherry on Friday before heading to the Southmoreland Winter Classic on Dec. 27.
“We are not going to hang our heads,” Roberts said. “We are going to turn our attention to Fort Cherry before the Southmoreland tournament, which I thought we did pretty well at last year. Our guys are young and hungry, and they want to wrestle. We knew what we were up against tonight in the returning WPIAL champion.”
Danny Smith got Burgettstown started on the right foot with a fall in 1:48 at 121 pounds before McGuffey’s Emmett Wolfe earned a 3-1 decision at 127 to cut the deficit to 6-3.
The Blue Devils’ Parker Sentipal (133) won by major decision, 13-5, and teammate Gaven Suica scored 12 takedowns en route to a 25-10 technical fall at 139.
“I think we started at a rough spot in the lineup,” Roberts said. “I thought our upper weights wrestled really well and got us back in it, and I am proud of them for battling and not just giving up.”
The Highlanders’ Victor Bonus (145) stopped the home team’s run with a fall in 4:21. Rudy Brown extended Burgettstown’s advantage to 21-9 after earning a pin in 1:11 at 152. Teammate Eric Kovach (160) recorded a fall in 3:06 for a 27-9 lead.
Reid Teagarden (172) and Aaron Supler (189) had pins in back-to-back bouts to pull McGuffey within six before Kuzior’s heroics.
The Blue Devils return to the mat Dec. 29 at the MyHouse Trojan Wars in Chambersburg.
“It was a tough one and they (McGuffey) are a good team,” Vigliotti said. “I think that’s the team to beat the next couple of years. It’s been a good start to the season, and hopefully we can keep it going.”