Fierce bout between top wrestlers highlights Central Dauphin’s rout of State College
Any time a game gets out of hand, in any sport, usually the winning team will pull starters and coast it out.
On Wednesday night, Central Dauphin was that winning team against State College, but it didn’t shut things down in a 42-20 win.
Instead, Rams coach Jeff Sweigard stuck to his game plan and gave fans in attendance a dream matchup at 145 pounds.
“Coach Sweigs is great. He wrestles who he has. He’s not hiding guys,” Little Lions coach Ryan Cummins said. “He’s trying to get his guys the best matches as possible, that’s why they are a successful program. They are successful year in and year out. They don’t shy away. They toughen their guys up. I applaud them and appreciate that.”
With the dual result already locked up in favor of Central Dauphin, who led 42-13 at the time, State College’s Pierson Manville got to square off with the Rams’ Matt Repos.
Manville is the defending 138-pound PIAA Class 3A champion. Repos, who is committed to Lehigh, was a PIAA Class 3A finalist at 132 pounds last season, and a three-time PIAA medalist.
“I was keeping him out there no matter what. We were going (1)45,” said Sweigard when asked if plan changed at all with such a big lead. “Whatever State College was doing was up to him. We didn’t really have anyone behind him (Repos) that had varsity experience. We were looking forward to that matchup.”
Manville and Repos came out looking to gain the edge on the other with some hard snaps and tough clinches. Neither wrestler was able to pull the trigger and score any points in the first period.
The Little Lions wrestler started from the bottom position and earned an escape 29 seconds into the second period. Again, the duo looked for an opening, but no opening came about.
“It was a lot of fun. It was very gritty,” Manville said. “Matt and I are mutual, we like each other. We both had a fight. I came up on top. It was fun hearing the crowd.”
Down 1-0 to start the third period, Repos started from the bottom looking for that tying escape. He got up and Manville was drapped over him the whole time.
Repos went for a couple of granby rolls, but Manville was on him like Repos was carrying a backpack. Again, Repos went to get out, but Manville had some tough mat returns.
The Rams wrestler went for the granby rolls another time, but not luck.
“There are always people that their whole wrestling style is rolling. I knew that he was going to roll,” Manville said. “I watched some video to prep for this. I was ready to go for it. I have a good arsenal of granby defense that I know it’s going to work.”
Repos had one more flurry to try and escape. However, Manville was still there clinging to him. The PIAA champ rode the Lehigh commit out for the entire third period for the 1-0 win, and the crowd went crazy.
“It doesn’t get much better than that, two guys that are that good, going at it,” Cummins said. “Pierson being able to ride him like that was amazing. It was very impressive.”
Sweigard was just as impressed with Manville’s ride.
“It was good for both kids. You got two of the best kids in the middleweights there. It was a great match for both kids,” he said. “They both need that. Win or lose, I think it was a great match for both kids. It tells you what we have in Pennsylvania with those two kids getting after it. With Pierson following him (Repos) on those granbys, Matt hit like seven or eight granbys, that was terrific wrestling.”
Manville’s teammate Asher Cunningham finished off the dual with a 9-1 major decision to setup the final dual score.
Before all of the excitement that went down at 145 pounds, State College dropped eight of the first 11 bouts. In six of those bouts, the Little Lions saw their wrestlers on their backs getting pinned.
All of those pins came in the first period except one.
The lone winners for State College in those 11 bouts were Carter Weaverling (6-1 decision at 172 pounds), Nick Pavlechko (forfeit at 285 pounds) and Hayden Cunningham (11-0 major decision at 133 pounds).
“We are in that spot that we’ve been working on the basic stuff with some of our guys. It’s going to take a while,” Cummins said. “There was definitely more fight this time than last week. I’m happier about that, but I wouldn’t say I’m happy (with the result). We definitely still have a lot of work to do.
“We got to find some more grit and not get pinned. We gave up six pins, the same amount as last week, that is unacceptable. You are never going to win a dual meet doing that.”
Central Dauphin 42, State College 20
Wednesday at State College
160: Ryan Garvick, CD, pinned Isaac Mellott, 1:12
172: Carter Weaverling, SC, dec. Arthur Ruud, 6-1
189: Eli Poyer, CD, pinned Adam Bell, 1:52
215: Luke Nye, CD, pinned Lucas Anderson, 5:19
285: Nick Pavlechko, SC, won by forfeit
107: Thunder Beard, CD, pinned Isaiah Vasquez, 1:20
114: Luke Hitchcock, CD, pinned Nick Berrena, 1:03
121: Clayton Ferree, CD, pinned Jonathan Coates, 1:59
127: William Flanagan, CD, dec. Eric Weaver, 7-2
133: Hayden Cunningham, SC, major dec. Dallas Schorr, 11-0
139: Gavin Reynolds, CD, dec. Jacob Campbell, 4-2
145: Pierson Manville, SC, dec. Matt Repos, 1-0
152: Asher Cunningham, SC, major dec. Mike Beers, 9-1
Takedowns: CD 8, SC 8
JH final: Central Dauphin 57-27
Records: Central Dauphin (1-0), State College (0-4)
Next match: State College at King of the Mountain, Central Mountain HS, Friday, 1 p.m.
