Feb 8, 2019 3 min read

HERSHEY – The Canon-McMillan wrestling team picked up a pair of very different wins on Friday at the PIAA Class AAA Team Tournament.

Having been knocked into the consolation round by District 3 champion Cedar Cliff on Thursday night, the Big Macs began the morning hoping to wrestle back for third.

In its opening match, Canon-McMillan rolled to a 51-16 victory against District 4 foe Selinsgrove, then won a thrilling 31-30 victory over Dallastown.

“We lost a couple (bouts) there that we thought we were going to get, but a couple other guys stepped up and kept us in the match,” Canon-McMillan coach Jeff Havelka said of the Dallastown match.

The match against Selinsgrove started with the Big Macs taking a 6-0 lead after Jacob Houpt received a forfeit at 106 pounds and they never looked back.

Jimmy Baxter, Brian Kinsey, Ken Hayman, Tanner Rohaley, Blake Joseph and Gerrit Nijenhuis each won by fall and the win sent the Big Macs into the afternoon’s second round of consolations against District 3 runner-up Dallastown.

The Wildcats proved a worthy opponent and it looked for a while they were on their way to sending the Big Macs out of the tournament.

After four matches, Dallastown led 18-3 and held all the momentum in the dual meet. A 7-5 sudden victory win for Joseph at 132 pounds stemmed the tide a bit, but only briefly.

The Wildcats pulled out to a 27-6 lead at the halfway point, but that was when Canon-McMillan began its comeback.

Evan Miller bumped up to 182 and picked up a third-period fall to cut the Dalastown lead to 27-12. Nijenhuis followed with a 6-3 win up at 195 to make it 27-15 and Alec Hendal’s 3-0 win at 220 made it 27-18 with four matches remaining.

Dallastown steadied the ship a bit at heavyweight with a win to lead 30-18 with just three matches remaining.

With their backs against the wall, the Big Macs lightweights responded.

First, it was Jacob Houpt at 106 who put together a strong showing to grab a 15-5 major decision to cut the lead to 30-22.

Then, Baxter, down at 113, took his opponent over for a second-period fall that made the score 30-28.

Finally, it was Costa Moore, who bumped up to 120 and delivered in the winner-take-all final match.

Moore jumped out to an early 2-0 lead after the first period. Despite being ridden out in the second, he held his 2-0 lead then finished strong in the third to grab a 6-1 win and give the Big Macs a 31-30 dual victory in dramatic fashion.

The biggest key for the Big Macs may have been Havelka’s decision to flip Baxter and Moore in the lineup.

“Just looking at their kids and their records and watching them wrestle earlier today in their quarterfinal match, we thought that gave us the best shot,” Havelka said of the decision. “And it worked out for us.”

Havelka added that the coaching staff told the wrestlers Thursday night that they needed to do more and that he felt his team accepted the challenge.

Canon-McMillan returns to action this morning in consolation quarterfinals against Spring Ford High School. Should the Big Macs win, they would have either Northamption or Kiski in the consolation semifinals.