LOCK HAVEN — It doesn’t get much easier than this.
A half-hour bus ride followed by an hour and a half of domination.
Penn State wrestlers worked in overdrive while rival Lock Haven seemed more content with a Sunday cruise as the No. 5 Nittany Lions stomped the Bald Eagles 50-0 at Thomas Field House. The Nittany Lions (4-1) won all 10 matches, earned bonus points in nine bouts — with four pins, three technical falls and two major decisions — and owned an impressive 41-0 takedown advantage.
“That’s all we can
ask for as a coaching staff is their best effort and attitude,” Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said. “They’ve got to be consistent. You can’t turn it on and turn it off, and that’s what was really important for this match, just to be solid and take the fight to them. Pretty much our guys did that.”
A week removed from a similar performance against West Virginia, the Nittany Lions heeded Sanderson’s message of consistancy.
And a more consistent training pattern for Penn State junior Bryan Pearsall lent itself to the upset of the afternoon.
Pearsall, who has been filling in for injured starter Sam Sherlock, faced off with Lock Haven senior Matt Bonson. Ranked No. 14 in the country at 141 pounds, Bonson took the first shot but couldn’t fully wrap up Pearsall’s legs for the takedown. Instead, Pearsall, the taller of the two athletes, slid around behind Bonson for a takedown of his own. Pearsall added a two-point tilt to take a 4-0 lead as the first period ended.
All week, Pearsall prepared for Bonson, who came into the bout with a 12-1 record, by working on lowering his stance in order to prevent the shorter wrestler from taking meaningful shots.
Pearsall also thought his conditioning would be an advantage as just two of Bonson’s dual meet bouts went the distance.
“He was probably not going to last at a pretty good pace throughout the match,” Pearsall said. “So I knew he was going to fade if I kept a good pace and I worked on a gameplan with the coaches to keep low in my stance and (stay) in good position the whole time, not give anything up. I kind of felt him break there a little bit and I knew if I kept wrestling tough, I was going to break him.”
In the second, Pearsall did just that.
With Bonson starting from the bottom, Pearsall forced the Lock Haven senior into a prone position, fastened in a tight head lock and twisted Bonson over where the Bald Eagle flailed to no avail. Pearsall secured the pin 4:22 into the bout.
Pearsall had admitted to being out of sync training-wise earlier in the season. Because he wasn’t starting, he was having trouble maintaining his diet and by result, making weight.
“I think those are the kind of things that just work themselves out the more you make weight,” Pearsall, who has three starts since he was having trouble, said. “Now that I’m kind of in a pattern, I feel I’m getting adjusted to it and it’s really helping my performance.”
Sherlock did not make the trip with the team, as he continues to rehab an injured ankle.
Sanderson said he wanted to take both wrestlers to the team’s next event, the Southern Scuffle in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Jan. 1-2, but couldn’t say for sure if Sherlock would be healthy enough by then. Sanderson did indicate, however, Pearsall has earned another shot to win the 141-pound starting spot full time.
“We can’t lose matches not hustling or not fighting,” Sanderson said. “And you know Pearsall is going to fight the whole time, win or lose.”
Pearsall’s stunning pin preceeded another fall— the third in four matches for the Nittany Lions — this one coming by No. 1 Frank Molinaro who pinned Owen Wilkinson in 2:30 at 149. No. 15 Nico Megaludis started the dual by pinning Bobby Rehm in 4:02 at 125.
The next slate of bouts had a different flavor to them. Rather than overpowering physical displays, Penn State wrestlers went into clinician mode.
Top-ranked David Taylor, Matt Brown and No. 5 Quentin Wright all earned technical falls over Bald Eagles in bouts at 165, 174 and 184 pounds, respectively. In that three-match span, Penn State outscored Lock Haven 57-11.
Brown, a redshirt freshman, made his dual meet debut for the Nittany Lions wrestling in place of No. 2 Ed Ruth, who Sanderson gave the afternoon off.
The Nittany Lions closed the dual with a major decision from No. 10 Morgan McIntosh, who returned after missing the last two duals with a knee injury. McIntosh had his knee heavily taped but had little trouble rolling up a major decision over Lock Haven’s Matt Parlier 13-4.
“A couple of positions, he can be a little tight, but he did a nice job to stay real solid and stay out of those positions,” Sanderson said of McIntosh. “He hit some nice shots, wrestled well. He’s been working on top and he’s doing a nice job there.”
No. 8 Cameron Wade ended the dual with a pin of Harry Turner 3:53 into the heavyweight bout.
