2-0!

December 18th, 2008 by Ryan Cook

Well it wasn’t pretty, nor what the staff expected to happen but as they say ” A Win is a Win”. Coming down to the last match is not the ideal way to win a dual meet but once again this young team faced the challenge head on and came out on top.

With the match tied 28-28 and one match left to go, Paul Scharrer showed his growing maturity as a wrestler and took the pressure that comes with wrestling with the match on the line and rose to the occasion Paul delivered a match clinching 8-4 decision. An early takedown and back points helped Paul withstand a late comeback attempt by his opponent, Aaron Smith.

We split wins 7-7 with Lake but won the bonus point battle, with each team pinning 2 and earning a major decision a piece, the forfeit at 189 proved costly. The match started at 112 where Lake won. At 119 Tyler Bowers salvaged a win when he regrouped and gained the winning takedown in overtime after the match was tied at the buzzer. Tyler nearly pinned Steve Knapp in the sudden victory overtime period after he took Knapp down to his back.

Freshman DJ Myers looked great as he worked his double leg takedowns into a fall and gave us a 9-3 lead. A major for Lake at 130 was negated when Zac Baumgartner used 2 slick high-crotch to double leg takedowns, an escape and a tilt to rack up an 8-0 major decision and a 13-7 lead for GM.

The next four matches and 15 points belonged to Conneaut Lake and pushed them into the lead by a 22-13 score. Worth noting were the performances of both Dalton Lester and Tom Nuhfer who battled hard against very tough opponents in losses that Lake was counting on bonus points in. Dalton was pitted against 2008 PIAA state medalist Matt Laird and Tom narrowly lost 3-2 against talented veteran Drew Kethcum.

Next up was the match of the night where Doug Myers exacted revenge against Dennis Diodati for two loses that occurred in last years District tournament, one of which was in the consolation finals. Doug wrestled a very smart match starting and ending the bout with takedowns and using defense and conditioning to earn a 9-5 victory. The next two matches put us ahead for a short time. Seth Stonis received a forfeit and Travis Bryant overpowered his opponent and pinned him in 19 seconds!

A pin at 285 tied the match before Paul Scharrer stepped out on the mat with confidence and sealed the victory for McLane.

This match although it was only the second Dual of the year was the first time that we have faced a deficit and the way in which the boys responded to it showed that they have the resolve and the beginning of the team chemistry to be a dual meet force to reckon with.

On a lighter note the thought, prayers and best wishes go out to Corey and Kyle Goss, present and former General McLane wrestlers, who have been hit with the passing of their mother Christine Sprake on Saturday.

Next up: Jarvis Wildcat Memorial Tournament in Athens, PA.