Pen Argyl routs Tamaqua in semis

BETHLEHEM - The writing was on the wall for Tamaqua heading into their District 11 Class AA semifinal bout with Pen Argyl Saturday afternoon at Freedom High School.

The Blue Raiders were overwhelming underdogs heading into the bout against the defending District champions and Pen Argyl took to its favored role hastily, wiping Tamaqua off the mat with a 60-9 result.

However, Raider Coach Jim McCabe's crew started the day with their own bout of adversity as three wrestlers, two of whom are starters at 130 and heavyweight, couldn't find accessible transportation to the team bus because of safety concerns associated with significant ice accumulation in the Tamaqua area Saturday morning.

Down in the greater Lehigh Valley, most of slippery travel dissipated to just plain rain by mid-morning, but McCabe's predicament certainly didn't start off the Raiders' day on a positive note.

"I live eight miles from the school [Tamaqua] and it took me 45 minutes to get there," said McCabe about Saturday's dreadful commute. "Having three kids not be able to make the bus was a downer for us in the morning, but with some of the areas our kids live in, I don't blame them for not making it. It was dangerous.

"Make no mistake about it, it wouldn't have made a difference in the outcome because Pen Argyl is as solid as any team out there, but it just wasn't the type of mindset you want your team to be in before wrestling a match like this."

The Knights reeled off six straight wins to open the match, five with bonus points. Of the 12 bouts that Pen Argyl won on the day, 11 came in the bonus point variety.

Travis Veronsky (160) ended Pen Argyl's win streak on the day with a 4-2 decision over J.D. Rabenold. Garth Lakitsky (215) also earned an injury default victory over Ryan Barry after Pen Argyl's coaches took Barry out of the match after committing a flagrant physical act on Lakitsky (now 28-0).

When the dust settled, Tamaqua's District Duals run had ended, but without any regrets. The sixth seeded Raiders won their first postseason match ever on Friday night when they upset third seeded Tri-Valley 39-36 and McCabe knows that this postseason's experience is an important step in the future of the program.

"We've qualified four years in a row before and we're continuing to improve," said McCabe. "I don't think the score really reflects what type of team we have because our guys had opportunities to wrestle better, but this was the only match we lost this year that wasn't by six points or less.

"We wrestled 10 times better against Tri-Valley and I hope that our kids see if they put in that type of effort against teams, we're going to have more success down the road. We just didn't have everything going for us against Pen Argyl."

Pen Argyl were dethroned of their supremacy after Bethlehem Catholic won their final four bouts against the Knights in the District title to come away with a 34-25 victory.

It was Becahi's first district championship since 1985.

In AAA, Easton was dominant throughout the tournament and walked away with the team crown following a 33-22 triumph over Nazareth.

Pen Argyl 60, Tamaqua 9

125 - Lobb (PA) tech. fall Drum, 15-0, 4:22

130 - Bartleson (PA) won by forfeit

135 - Stoelzl (PA) dec. Silkowski, 9-6

140 - Racciato (PA) pinned K. Mashack, :26

145 - Burriesci (PA) maj. dec. Christman, 9-1

152 - Lutz (PA) tech. fall E. Mashack, 17-2, 4:23

160 - Veronsky (T) dec. Rabenold, 4-2

171 - Horn (PA) dec. Edmonds, 14-8

189 - Evans (PA) pinned Craigle, :26

215 - Lakitsky (T) inj. def. Barry, :20

285 - Mutton (PA) won by forfeit

103 - Williams (PA) pinned C. Mashack, 3:50

112 - Welsh (PA) pinned Hill, 3:15

119 - Knapik (PA) maj. dec. Boyer, 9-0