The wrestling match between Tyrone and West Branch had all the potential to be a real barnburner, a contest that could go down to the wire with the last weight class wrestled deciding the winner.
West Branch was undefeated in dual meets (4-0) and had won two tournaments (Southmoreland and Cambria Heights) and had 12 wrestlers in the lineup with winning records. Tyrone had won eight straight duals after a season-opening loss to Indian Valley and had won the Zeigler Tournament and made a strong showing in mega-team tournaments such as the King of the Mountain and Eastern States Classic.
That was all on paper however, the match was wrestled on the mat in the Tyrone Area High School gymnasium. Reality bites sometimes. Tyrone used a pin parade to turn what was expected to be a tight match into a run-away. The Golden Eagles continued their undefeated string to nine with a 51-24 triumph.
The match began at the 275-pound weight class, much to Tyrone’s advantage. Eagle heavyweight Terry Tate (23-0) wasted little time in throwing Dylan Viehdorfer (8-8) to his back and quickly working for the fall in just 0:58.
The rest of the Eagle lineup took a hint from Tate to register a total of eight pins before the dual meet was over.
Tyrone turned out the lights on West Branch early. Anthony Romano (103), T. J. Albright (112), and Robert Waite (119) all followed with pins to jump-start the Eagles out to a 24-0 headstart. Through the first three matches of the dual, West Branch wasn’t able to score a single match point.
“This was one of those matches that you look forward to, but you’re not sure of the outcome” said Tyrone coach Blair Packer. “Any time a kid can make mistakes and get caught. It was a talented bunch of kids that wrestled here tonight, I’m talking both West Branch and Tyrone. I know they were undefeated coming in and with our loss to Indian Valley we were second. This win tonight lets the kids know that they are at the top of the rung now and we have to keep pushing. We had a nice performance out of everyone tonight. A couple kids got pinned, but they also had good competition.
Romano (6-5) was all over Terry Hickman (2-9) scoring a takedown and five nearfall points before showing Hickman the lights in 1:19. Albright (19-5) scored the only points of the opening period on a takedown and when Matt Wills (10-7) took the bottom position to begin the second stanza, Albright turned Wills for the fall in 2:45. Waite gained a measure of revenge for a loss in last year’s District VI Tournament to the Warriors’ Brandon Lefort. Lefort opened the scoring on Wednesday night getting a takedown and nearfall for a 4-0 lead, but Waite reversed Lefort and out him on his back. Lefort escaped to take a slim 5-4 after one period. Lefort chose the bottom and Waite worked for half of the middle period before finding the right combination to deck Lefort at the 3:27 mark.
With Tyrone in a stunning 24-0 lead, Amos Albright (9-8) took Shayne Tate down, only to have Tate hit a reversal to tie the first period up at 2-2 at 125. Tate (4-15) had trouble getting off the bottom, with Albright recording a three-point nearfall. Tate escaped to trail 5-3 going into the final two minutes. Tate escaped at the beginning of the period to slice his deficit to 5-4, then tied up the score at 2-2, when referee Bruce Hasselrig hit Albright with his second stall call of the match. With 30 seconds left and both wrestlers looking for an opening, Shayne took his foe down and rode him for the final seconds of the match to win a huge 7-5 decision.
The Warriors finally were able to put points on the scoreboard, when undefeated Donnie Clark (17-0) won by technical fall over Josh Hunter (11-13). Clark registered a pair of takedowns, a reversal and four separate sets of back points in a 17-1 tech fall at 130.
At 135, the highlight of the evening occurred when Tyrone senior David Miller stepped out on the mat seeking his 100th career victory. Miller didn’t keep all the Tyrone faithful waiting long, taking Jon Dempchak down once, then again after letting him up. Miller (24-3) put Demchak on his back and never let him up until Hasslerig slapped the mat for the fall in 1:08. Miller joins teammate Terry Tate, who currently has 125 wins, Thadd Westley, who finished his Tyrone career last year with 127 wins and Bruce Wallace, who stood all by himself in the record book with 111 wins until Westley and Tate reached the 100-mark last season.
“Wrestling with some of the top kids in the state on this team since I was a freshman, this feels pretty good,” explained Miller. “With Thadd, Brice (Mertiff) coming close, Tate almost has the record for our team, I just hope that I can keep the winning going on for our team and so can everybody else, so we can do well in the rest of the season, do well in the district duals and move on to and then move on to state and hopefully take it there too.”
Miller was 23-4 as a freshman, 30-14 as a sophomore and 23-10 last year before stretching his overall log to 100-38 with the remainder of this season to wrestle.
West Branch scored victories at 140, where Nathan Owens (13-5) majored Sam McCloskey (10-11) 14-2, and Teddy Little (11-6) decisioned Jacob Smerekar (9-11) 7-1.
Tyrone sophomore Justin Schopp was taken down by West Branch senior Billy Dale, but escaped to trail 2-1 at the end of the first period. Schopp and Dale battled through a scoreless middle stanza, but Schopp escaped and took Dale to the mat at the beginning of the third period, getting the pin with time running down at the 5:44 mark to ice the win for the Eagles.
At 160, Tyrone senior Brice Mertiff (25-3), who with 87 wins is closing in on becoming the fourth member of the 2004-05 Eagles to earn 100 wins, made quick work of Tim Trice. Mertiff, who now has 23 pins, including 21 of them in the first period, decked Trice in 0:28.
Tyrone still had one more bullet to fire. At 171, Heath Walk earned his 20th win of the season by pinning Jim Seger in 5:27.
Walk (20-5) built up 5-0 and 8-0 leads at the end of the first two periods, then added an escape and two sets of nearfalls before getting Tyrone’s eighth and final pin of the match.
West Branch took the final two weight classes with Colt Vedic (13-6) pinning James Updike (6-8) at 185, and Tim Smeal (10-3) pinning Donnie Conrad at 215.
“We are getting stringer by the day. Every practice, every match, every tournament, these kids are bonding all the time. I really, really like what I see. We have another month of competition and if we keep jelling like we are, I think we’re going to do quite well over the next month leading up to sectionals and districts.”
The Tyrone junior high made it a clean sweep in their dual meet with the Little Warriors. Tyrone jumped out to a 34-0 with wins in the first six weight classes and continued to a 67-27 triumph.
A. J. Schopp (85), Nathan Kruis (105), Jeremy Barlett (115), J. P. VanAllman (155) and Nick Wilburn (185) pinned their foes. J. D. Gardner (210), William Shauf (75), Chase Weaver (80), Doug Rudy (95) and Byron Sullins (165) picked up wins by forfeit. Cody Weaver (90) won a major decision and Shane Emigh (138) won by regular decision.
Tyrone 51 West Branch 24
275 – Terry Tate (T) pinned Dylan Viehdorfer 0:58
103 Anthony Romano (T) pinned Terry Hickman 1:19
112 – T. J. Albright (T) pinned Matt Willis 2:45
119 – Robert Waite (T) pinned Brandon Lefort 3:27
125 – Shayne Tate (T) dec. Amos Albright 7-5
130 – Donnie Clark (WB) tech fall Josh Hunter 17-1, 2:53
135 – David Miller (T) pinned Jon Demchak 1:08
140 – Nathan Owens (WB) maj. dec. Sam McCloskey 14-2
145 – Ted Little (WB) dec. Jacob Smerekar 7-1
152 – Justin Schopp (T) pinned Billy Dale 5:44
160 – Brice Mertiff (T) pinned Tim Trice 0:28
171 – Heat Walk (T) pinned Jim Seger 5:27
189 – Colt Vedic (WB) pinned James Updike 1:07
215 – Tim Smeal (WB) pinned Donnie Conrad 5:17.
Junior High
Tyrone 67 West Branch 27
210 – J. D. Gardner (T) won by forfeit
250 – No match
75 – Williams Shauf (T) won by forfeit
80 – Chase Weaver (T) won by forfeit
85 – A. J. Schopp (T) pinned Jacob McGonigal 0:39
90 – Cody Weaver (T) maj. dec. Adam Albright 18-4
95 – Doug Rudy (T) won by forfeit
100 – Shane Pewanick (WB) pinned Matt Moore 1:29
105 – Nathan Kruis (T) pinned J. T. Confer 2:37
110 – Aaron Albright (WB) dec. Josh Miller 5-0
115 – Jeremy Barlett (T) pinned Scott Farrell 2:14
122 – Jeremy Kanouf (WB) pinned Cody Smith 2:14
130 – Trevor Yeager (WB) pinned Andrew Clark 2:38
138 – Shane Emigh dec. Mike Gheen 13-10
145 – James Tice (WB) pinned Jordan Berry 1:05
155 – J. P. VanAllman (T) pinned Billy Dobo 3:38
165 – Byron Sullins (T) won by forfeit
185 – Nick Wilburn (T) pinned Zeth Schraff 0:38
