Strouse reaches PIAA quarters; Schaffer, Wickersham still alive

HERSHEY — Bronson Strouse couldn’t have asked for a better start.

The Tamaqua senior opened his final appearance at the PIAA Championships with a bang on Thursday, pining Tussey Mountain’s Matt Watkins in 1:42. Strouse will wrestle Northeast Bradford’s Dawson Brown in the Class 2A 285-pound quarterfinals on Friday.

“I’m just taking it one match at a time,” Strouse said “I’m going to have tougher opponents each round. I won the first one, now it’s off to the next one.”

Strouse took care of business quickly against Watkins, getting the takedown before finishing the match.

“I just tried to move him, get my shots in,” said Strouse. “He was a bigger guy. I got my chance when I bowed him, and he fell over.”

Strouse noted the advantage of weighing in at 263 pounds this year, up from 240 last season.

“I’m not getting pushed out of bounds, I’m not getting stall calls,” said Strouse.

Coming off his first regional title and second straight district crown a week earlier, Strouse has put himself in position to cap his career with even more success in Hershey.

“Confidence breeds success,” said Blue Raiders’ head coach Jim McCabe. “He wrestled aggressively the whole first period. He had a couple shots, shot him off the mat twice, I think, then hit his high-crotch right to the bow, right into the half. It’s a good feeling for him and the coaches. He’s definitely in the right mindset, and has his foot in the door going forward.”

Strouse had a bye in the prelims. Strouse lost his first-round match 4-1 in overtime to Southern Huntingdon’s Kole Winfield last year.

He had no such issues this season.

“The crazy thing about his weight is, yeah he’s up to around 255-260, but he can hit sweep singles, dumps, high-crotches, doubles — he can do shots that the normal heavyweight does not take,” said McCabe. “He’s ready. He’s mentally in the right spot.

“He knows, and his skill set is that, if I get a takedown no one is going to beat me. If it’s a 0-0 first period, he knows if he escapes, and it goes to the third period at 1-1, he knows that he needs his takedown to win the match, whether it’s in the third period or overtime. But he’s certainly more qualified to hit that takedown at anytime, especially when he makes the decision to do it on the mat.”

Tamaqua’s Nate Wickersham and Northern Lehigh’s Joshua Schaffer stayed alive with victories in the first round of consolations on Thursday.

Schaffer used a reversal in the second period to post a 2-0 decision over Reynolds’ Rocco John-Daniello at 285 pounds.

“It’s awesome,” said Northern Lehigh head coach Scott Snyder. “I love the mindset that he has of just taking it one at a time. He’s not looking ahead. He saw that guy wrestle before and he likely has some kind of game plan, and it was just really cool to see.

“There were a couple of things that we’ve been working on in the room — some all season, some just the last few weeks — and it was just awesome to see everything come together for him, and for him to use those things and kind of realize that all those little things he’s worked so hard on, just why he’s been doing them.”

Schaffer was pinned in 5:16 by Evan Pellegrine of Bellwood-Antis at 285 in his preliminary round match, a contest he was trailing only 4-3 in the third period and never led.

He applied lessons learned from that match to prevail in his second-ever state bout.

“I think it was big, in the first period we got a little scare with the double-underhooks, he fought them off really well and was able to find his way back to the center and avoid a stall call,” said Snyder. “It went into the second tied up, and we had to put him on bottom, and he did a really good job holding it together. He kind of looked back here and there, but he quickly realized that he needed to square-up and try to get to his base.

“He just never gave up in that second period. There were a couple of times he gotten broken flat, and got back up, and he was able to keep scrambling until he got that reversal at the end of the period, which ended up winning him the match.”

Schaffer will wrestle Keagan Braund of Athens Friday in a second round consolation match.

“He’s just been doing a fantastic job in the postseason of keeping his composure and not looking for things that aren’t there, just staying focused on each little situation and taking it one move at a time, one point at a time,” said Snyder. “Just the little things for him are starting to go such a long way, and he’s starting to realize that, and I think that’s awesome to see.”

Wickersham edged Kane’s Cameron Whisner 6-5 to pick up his first state victory in his second trip to Hershey.

“It means a lot,” said Wickersham. “Last year, I didn’t get any wins. This year, getting that win helps to get the nerves away and now I’m ready to roll tomorrow, win a few matches and get where I need to be on the podium.”

After dropping his 182-pound preliminary match 7-3 to Slippery Rock’s Vito Pilosi earlier in the day, Wickersham scored in the first period against Whisner, getting a takedown with 0:21 left in the first period.

“It helps a lot, because then I can relax and don’t have to push for points, just wrestle my match,” said Wickersham. “It gives me a cushion where if I try something and don’t really hang on to it, just give up the two points and you’re still ahead, so I think it helped a lot.”

Wickersham picked up a reversal in the second before Whisner grabbed an escape to make it 4-1 heading to the final period.

Two back points with 0:39 left in the match pushed Wickersham’s advantage to 6-1.

Whisner hit a reversal with 0:31 left and got two back points as time expired to make it interesting.

“I just wanted to wrestled how I wanted to, wrestle my match and let it fly,” said Wickersham. “You have nothing to lose now. They’re in the same boat, so they’re going to be coming at you hard, so you have to got to go right back at them. I just tried to wrestle my match.

“Last year at regionals, I was letting kids put me in cradles that I could actually get into that position a lot,” Wickersham said. “And it happened earlier in the match when I got (nearfall) points. So I was just sitting there not really too nervous. But when he started rolling me across, that’s when it gets a little nerve-racking. But for the most part, I thought I was in a good position.”

Wickersham will wrestle Ian Eckenrode of Cambria Heights in the second round of consolations.

Action will resume tomorrow at 9 a.m. with quarterfinals and second round consolations.