North Schuylkill earns key win over Indians

by Chuck Souders

Posted on January 11, 2007

COAL TOWNSHIP — North Schuylkill’s Travis Brown and Shamokin’s Derrick Shingara met on the wrestling mat for the third time in less than two weeks Wednesday, and with the Schuylkill League Tournament coming up in another eight days, they might be getting reacquainted again real soon.

Brown had the upper hand last night, scoring an overtime takedown to beat Shingara 4-2 at 125 pounds in the final bout of the evening to preserve the Spartans’ 36-30 Division I win over the Indians, but it was decidedly not easy.

“He’s tough on his feet,” Brown said of Shingara. “I couldn’t get in on a shot. I just had to go up under his arm. I finally got it in the overtime. He’s a real tough kid. I might see him again in a couple weeks. That’s good. I need tough matches like that.”

Shingara, a freshman, surprised Brown, a junior who was 30-8 last season, with a 2-1 win at the Selinsgrove Holiday Tournament on Dec. 30, but Brown came back for a 4-0 win in the finals of the tournament. They met last night with the match on the line.

“I can’t take any more of these kind of matches,” said North Schuylkill coach Dave Brown, laughing. “I’ll have a heart attack. That was a great bout. He (Shingara) did what he had to do to take Travis out of it and Travis did what he had to do to take him out of it.”

“Travis did a good job of taking away Derrick’s aggressive style,” Shamokin coach Todd Hockenbroch said.

The two teams split the 10 previous bouts that were wrestled, with each taking a forfeit win and one bout being a double forfeit. The Spartans, (6-7, 1-0) who won their division opener, had a three-point lead based on a 4-3 edge in pins.

“I didn’t think it would come down to that,” Coach Brown said. “We were figuring on (Bryan) Tarlecki winning at 152 but (Jarrod) Dabulis did a good job for them. They were also without (Matt) Marcheski, but we had our 130-pounder (Steve Rockwell) out with a staph infection.”

Dabulis scored a reversal with about 10 seconds left to down Tarlecki, 7-5.

That stopped the bleeding for the Indians (3-5, 0-2) after Rick Leib and Zach Cress gave the Spartans a 12-3 lead with back-to-back pins at 140 and 145, respectively. Colby Sprenkle opened the match for Shamokin with a 6-3 win over Brett Zerby at 135.

The teams traded pins over the next four bouts. North Schuylkill’s Dave Cress pinned Blaine Kehler at 160, and Shamokin’s Nick Domanski returned the favor against Kevin Kost at 171. The Spartans’ Kevin Bolinsky raised his record to 16-1 with a pin of Konrad Kehler at 189, and Shamokin’s Caleb Vesnefsky bounced Rick Wetzel at 215.

Tony Maurer’s 7-3 win over Chris Tobias at 285 gave the Spartans a 27-18 lead but Jarred Hartman pinned Kevin Piaskowski at 103 before the teams traded forfeits to set up the final bout.


Panther Valley 66 Williams Valley 9
TOWER CITY — Brandon Hefflefinger (125), Bradley Wetzel (130), Dave Schweibinz (135), and Jared Reitz (145) all scored pin as Panther Valley capitalized on seven forfeits to defeat Williams Valley in a Division II contest.


Mahanoy Area 48 Schuylkill Haven 24
MAHANOY CITY — Pins from Matt Sullivan (171), Ryan Herring (189) and John Hutchinson (285) proved to be enough as the Golden Bears downed the Hurricanes.

Jon Nettles (130) and Eric Rollman (215) earned pins to lead Schuylkill Haven.


Mount Carmel 50 Jim Thorpe 19
MOUNT CARMEL — Josh Malick (112), Doug Kraynak (145), Sean McCollum (160), Ryan Kogut (189) and Mike McCollum (285) all earned pinfalls as Mount Carmel defeated Jim Thorpe in a league match.

Josh Hornberger (152) and James Haynes (215) added major decisions for the Tornadoes.


Pine Grove 40 Tri-Valley 31
PINE GROVE — Allen Daubert (125), Trent Donofrio (130), Ryan Reichert (152) and Cameron Wise (215) notched pinfalls as Pine Grove edged Tri-Valley in a Schuylkill League Division I match.

Jon Gloseck (119), Andrew Oxenrider (160), Zach Hubler (189) and Cody Sauers (285) earned pins for the Bulldogs.


Tamaqua 43 Wyomissing 27
WYOMISSING — Kyle Kunkel (145) picked up a pins, and Kevin Machay (112) and Matt Stewart (140) picked up wins by major decision for Tamaqua.



©The REPUBLICAN & Herald 2007

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