Mounties pull away from Tribe

Stroudsburg entered their matchup with Lehighton undefeated and highly touted in the Mountain Valley Conference this season.

The Mounties lived up to their reputation as they ran away after a brief test from the Indians for a 55-18 win.

Lehighton's Zack Coleman snagged a nice decision from Stroudsburg's Keith Howle at 170-pounds to tie the team points up at 15-15. However, from then on, it was all Mounties, as they reeled off four straight wins to take the commanding lead and pull away from the Tribe.

"Lehighton is always a tough team," Stroudsburg head coach Matt Kleinle said. "Anytime that you can get a league win, it's going to be huge. But to get a nice win like this against a strong Lehighton program says even more."

With the match starting at the 132-pound weight class, Mike Cessaro and Jason Berger started out the match with consecutive pins for the Mounties to supply them with the early lead. At 145, Heven Merle edged Lehighton's Ian Zimmerman in a bout that went down to the wire. Merle's decision made it 15-0 after three bouts.

But the Indians stormed back as Anthony Farole pulled out a late fall at 152 and Mike Balliet followed with another third period pin to cut the team score to 15-12.

Coleman's victory then evened the score, but the Indians were able to win just one more bout the rest of the way.

The next four matches flew by with the Mounties earning an early second period pin by Ryan Barry, first period pins by Robbie Karstendick and Keyauter Aulden, and a forfeit win for Eddy Cope to balloon the lead to 39-15.

Lehighton's Jake Hoats muscled out a 3-1 decision at 103 to end the run, but six straight Stroudsburg wins produced the final margin.

"Obviously, we're looking at a team that takes the sport very seriously and works hard at it," said Lehighton coach Danny Williams. "When you square off against a team like that, you're going to have a tough battle.

"We have some things we are going to need to work on. Fundamentally, there were some basic mistakes made and they can be fixed. We'll work on those on a daily basis and go back to the drawing board."

Stroudsburg 55, Lehighton 18

103 - Jake Hoats (L) dec. Shane Jones, 3-1

112 - Guiseppe Rea (S) pinned Josh Gornick in 5:06

120 - Jeff Hernandez (S) pinned Nick Schaffer in 4:27

126 - Brian Morales (S) major dec. Anthony Farano, 11-4

132 - Mike Cessaro (S) pinned Chris Bosco in 2:46

138 - Jason Berger (S) pinned Alex Rankovich in :49

145 - Heven Merle (S) dec. Ian Zimmerman, 9-8

152 - Anthony Farole (L) pinned Kevin Merle in 4:21

160 - Mike Balliet (L) pinned Joey Palmisano in 4:43

170 - Zack Coleman (L) dec. Keith Howle, 7-4

182 - Ryan Barry (S) pinned Joe Smith in 2:10

195 - Robbie Karstendick (S) pinned James Scott in 1:06

220 - Keyauter Aulden (S) pinned Colton Davidson in :28;

285 - Eddy Cope (S) won by forfeit.