Saucon Valley 71, Bishop McDevitt 9 – PIAA 2A team wrestling first round – Rapid Recap
It was slightly more competitive than last year’s shutout, but Saucon Valley still had little trouble dispatching the District 12 champions in a first-round PIAA 2A wrestling match Thursday afternoon at the Giant Center in Hershey.
The win advanced the Panthers (24-0) to Friday’s noon quarterfinal where Saucon Valley will face District 4 runner-up Line Mountain, which defeated District 7 champion Burrell 31-29 Thursday when Burrell forfeited the last bout at 126 pounds.
The Panthers hammered the Royal Lancers (6-14) 84-0 in the same round last year, but posted 11 pins and a technical fall this year and dropped matches at 195 and 285 pounds.
It might have been hard for Saucon Valley not to be looking at the Burrell-Line Mountain match on an adjacent match, but senior 160-pounder Zach Petrucelli, who pinned Lonnie Rice in 1 minute and 18 seconds, said it was a matter of being properly prepared.
“You just stay calm, don’t look ahead and you can’t let your head get ahead of you,:” Petrucelli said. “I just prepare for my match and stay humble. You stay focused on your team’s match and cheer for your teammates and get everybody pumped up.”
Saucon Valley head coach Chad Shirk would like to see maybe a bit more pump in his Panthers.
“We wrestled pretty well but we have to make sure we stay focused,” he said. “I want to see every wrestler out there with some battle, and we have to make sure we are focused and we can’t look ahead. We have to be ready to go and maybe a couple of our kids weren’t. We’re going to have a little talk with our team. I hope we are ready to let it rip tomorrow.”
PIAA 2A team wrestling brackets
Before then there’s plenty of play time for the Panthers,
“We just relax and have a lot of team bonding,” Petrucelli said. “The pool’s been broken at our hot el and we hope it’s fixed when we get back.”
Turning point: When the bracket came out. With all due respect to Bishop McDevitt, a program that is less than 10 years old, they had no chance against a team such as Saucon Valley. The PIAA really should make sure that teams such as the Royal Lancers have a play-in match; if teams like Wilson and Northern Lebanon had to play-in to reach Hershey so should McDevitt. For good reasons, the PIAA hesitates to put district champions in play-ins, but there need to be exceptions to that rule. This is one of them
Top performer: Saucon Valley senior 220-pounder Devin Fontanez, ranked No. 2 in the state by Off the Mat, pinned Pete Sholanke in 10 seconds. That’s pretty fast.
What it means: Saucon Valley stays in the championship round and the Panthers sustained no injuries. Also, as Shirk noted, “some of our guys who haven’t been here before got some wins under their belt,” A good first day, then, for the Panthers.
Brad Wilson may be reached at bwilson@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @bradwsports. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.
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