Canon-Mac gets angry, 2 wins in team tournament
Stefen Richer of Canon-McMillan (left) and Tyler Borton of Exeter go head-to-head at 160 pounds in the consolation round of the PIAA Class AAA Team Tournament Friday at the Giant Center in Hershey. Borton won a 4-2 decision but C-M won the dual meet, 42-21.
Tim Hritsko of Canon-McMillan tries to work out from bottom against Gage Moran of Exeter at 145 pounds in the consolation round of the PIAA Class AAA Team Tournament Friday at the Giant Center in Hershey. Hritsko won a 2-0 overtime decision and C-M won the dual meet, 42-21.
Anthony Mastrangelo of Canon-McMillan, left, controls the head of Chris Matthews in their 126-pound bout in the consolation round of the PIAA Class AAA Team Tournament Friday at the Giant Center in Hershey. Mastrangelo earned a 6-1 decision to help C-M win the dual meet, 42-21.
HERSHEY – A little bit of anger has gone a long way for Canon-McMillan High School’s wrestling team.
After an opening-round one-point loss to Council Rock South in a dual meet they felt they could have won had the effort level been raised, the Big Macs had a “Come to Jesus” gathering at their hotel to discuss what went wrong in the CRS match.
The results were impressive.
The Big Macs breezed through two consolation round matches Friday in the PIAA Class AAA Team Tournament at the Giant Center in Hershey and now have an opportunity to avenge a loss in the WPIAL team finals last week when the two teams battle at 9 a.m. today.
“It stung that we lost by a point to Council Rock,” said C-M head coach Jason Cardillo. “I talked with the guys. They are finally understanding the points of the team. Every point counts.”
And good fortune might finally be with the Big Macs. For the first time in six postseason dual meets, they won the flip, giving them the matchup advantages. The result was a dominating 42-21 rout of Exeter.
“I thought the turning point was finally winning the coin flip,” said Cardillo. “We were finally able to get our matchups. We have not had luck but we finally got to adjust our lineup a little bit.”
That followed a strong showing in Friday morning’s 46-14 ripping apart of Dubois.
“I do think they were (angry),” said Exeter head coach Jonathan Rugg. “You saw the mentality of a team coming off a win versus a team coming off a tough loss (against Council Rock South). You can see how that affects the momentum.”
Canon-McMillan ran off six straight wins from heavyweight to 126 – the match started at 195 – to build a 27-9 lead. The highlight in the run was Logan Macri’s pin of Brandon Borton in just six seconds.
“I wanted to get the team excited, ready for the match,” said Macri. “We wrestled flat (against Council Rock South) and we talked and decided that we needed to do our job and our job is to win.”
The run was stopped when C-M forfeited to Austin Desanto, runner-up to Franklin Regional’s Spencer Lee at 120 pounds in last year’s individual state tournament and the top-ranked wrestler at 132 this year.
The Big Macs could afford the forfeit because they led 27-9 at the time and Matt Oblock got the points back when he bumped to 138 and pinned Alex O’Neill in 3:42.
That’s the advantage of winning the flip.
With a 33-15 lead, the Big Macs just needed one more win to put the match out of reach. They got it when Tim Hritsko took Gage Moran down in the first overtime to make it 36-15 with three bouts remaining.
Gerrit Nijenhuis, who Cardillo believed had a pin that wasn’t called in the match against Council Rock South, added the topping with a pin of Tyler Harkness in 57 seconds.
In the opener, Canon-McMillan won the first four bouts and never looked back. The Big Macs had five pins and held Dubois to just four bout wins. Brendan Furman had another fast pin – fast becoming his trademark – when he stuck Alex O’Hara in eight seconds at heavyweight.
“The first round, I don’t think we were together as a team,” said Furman. “Now, we’re pretty close right now. We had to dig deep. We had everybody do their job.”
Nijenhuis (160) opened the dual meet with a pin and Alec Hendal (195), Macri (120) and Tim Hritsko (138) would match that feat. And fate seemed to turn in this match when Jacob Gardner, a 106-pound freshman was awarded a decision about 30 seconds following the mat after the referee and mat judge discussed whether his takedown of Trenton Donahue beat the buzzer. They did and Dubois lost a team point when Donahue fired his head gear into the bench as he walked off the mat.