Wrestling Tops Duquesne, 26-15, at Fitzgerald Field House
1/17/2004 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Wrestling Tops Duquesne, 26-15, at Fitzgerald Field House
1/17/2004
PITTSBURGH ? The Pittsburgh wrestling team ended a two-meet losing streak with a 26-15 victory over crosstown rival Duquesne at the Fitzgerald Field House on Saturday evening. The Panthers moved to 4-4 heading into the meat of their Eastern Wrestling League schedule. The Dukes dropped to 2-3 in 2003-04.
The match began with the heavyweights and Marc Allemang of the Dukes scored a late takedown in the first period against Travis Shirley (West Middlesex, Pa./Kennedy Christian) and scored an escape point early in the second for a 3-0 lead. Shirley did earn an escape point in the third period but got no closer as Allemang scored the 3-1 victory.
The Dukes made it a 9-0 match with a forfeit at 125 pounds. The win was picked up by Duquesne?s Brad Cipriani. In the 133-pound match, sophomore Adam Curry (Churchill, Pa./Woodland Hills) scored the first points of the match on a takedown but Keith Pavlekovsky came back and pinned Curry at 2:49 of the first period to extend Duquesne?s lead to 15-0.
Pittsburgh picked up its first win of the meet in the 149-pound bout by sophomore Ronald Tarquinio (McDonald, Pa./West Allegheny) over Cody Midlam. Tarquinio had the match?s first takedown in the first period but Midlam escaped before the end of the frame. After an escape, another takedown made the score 5-1 at the 1:16 mark of the second period. Midlam scored an escape in the third period but Tarquinio scored another two takedowns and three-near fall points and ended up with a 13-3 major decision victory.
At 149 pounds, Pittsburgh?s Matt Kocher (State College, Pa./State College Area) and Duquesne?s Jon Denk traded shots in the first period before a takedown by Kocher at the 2:26 mark for the 2-0 lead. In the second frame, Kocher was able to escape early for another point and took Denk down again for a 5-0 advantage. The Panther freshman held on for a 9-2 victory to cut Duquesne?s lead down to eight points at 15-7.
Justin Nestor (Transfer, Pa./Reynolds) got another six points back with a pin just 53 seconds into the 165-pound bout of Brandon Baldini of the Dukes. It was Nestor?s 10th pin of the season and 23rd of his career. At 165 pounds, junior Zachariah Doll (Quakertown, Pa./The Hill School) scored a takedown, a reversal and three near-fall points in the first frame for a 7-2 lead over Jared Ricotta of the Dukes. Another reversal in the second period by Doll made it 9-2 but Ricotta scored a reversal of his own a half-minute into the third period to make it 9-4. That?s as close as Ricotta would get, however, as Doll improved to 16-2 for the season and a perfect 4-0 in dual meets.
The first period of the 174-pound bout was action packed as Pittsburgh?s Francis Iorfido (Johnsonburg, Pa./Johnsonburg) scored an early takedown on Duquesne?s Mike Frank and then four reversals and an escape made it a 6-5 match. Iorfido scored one more takedown with just 15 seconds remaining in the first period to make it 8-5 in favor of the Panther sophomore. The only points in the second period were a reversal by Iorfido to extend his lead to five and the match ended with that margin, an 11-6 Pittsburgh victory.
In the final two bouts of the evening, junior Mike Croyle (North Huntingdon, Pa./Norwin) scored a takedown with just seconds remaining in the 184-pound match to defeat Matt Doak of Duquesne by a 3-1 count. Following Croyle?s win, senior Josh Birt (Spokane, Wash./North Idaho JC) defeated the Dukes? Chandler Carranza by a score of 13-2 for a major decision to account for the final score.
Pittsburgh will travel to Cleveland State to take on the EWL rival Vikings on Thursday, Jan. 22 at 7 p.m.