PORT ALLEGANY — With just five wrestled matches, it was far from the season’s best dual meet.
If you like heavyweight wrestling, however, Port Allegany High School was the place to be Tuesday evening.
The Gators capped their dual meet season with a 51-21 victory over Brockway. The Rovers won three of five matches, but at evening’s end, it was Port’s 285-pounder that pulled out a victory in the proverbial main event.
Carson Neely and Gavin Thompson both have high aspirations at the District 9, Northwest Region and even PIAA tournaments. Port’s Neely won the first head-to-head bout between the pair, however, gutting out a 3-0 decision in Tuesday’s finale.
“You had two kids ranked Top 10 in the state right now and two really good wrestlers,” Port coach Brad Greenman said. “We knew we needed to control the match and get in positions we liked. We got out of position a couple times but were able to recover from it. That’s a tough match against a really good opponent, so we feel pretty good about the win.”
A scoreless first period saw no shot attempts but multiple set-up efforts inside, both wrestlers fishing for a Russian to set up their offense. Thompson chose bottom to start the 2nd period and Neely stuck to him, riding for the entire two minutes.
In his turn on bottom, Neely used a stand-up to escape 50 seconds into the third. Neely stood tall as the third-period seconds ticked away, never in danger of a stalling warning. With Thompson searching for last-second offense, Neely countered a desperation shot attempt to score and seal the match.
“A couple of the coaches have been working a lot with (Neely) on rides on top. Especially with a heavyweight, we’re making sure we get a wrist or an ankle and get a good breakdown,” Greenman said. “If you can keep a good kid down… Carson did the same thing at the Ultimate Warrior tournament. He’s done a good job with it.”
Port ultimately used seven forfeits to fuel its victory. The evening started at 114 pounds, where Brockway gave away three consecutive classes before Parker Pisarchick and James Nichols posted back-to-back Rover wins at 133 and 139, respectively.
Seth Stewart held on for a 1-0 victory over Port’s Juuso Young in a 189-pound match with minimal action. Stewart escaped in the second and Young took neutral in the third but wasn’t able to secure the takedown he needed.
“(Stewart) is probably one of the best top (position) guys in the state,” Greenman said. “We knew we were going either neutral or top, and I thought we had a good game plan to steal a win at the end, but hopefully we can get that down at Districts if we see him again. Seth is a really good wrestler but I think we have a good feel for how we can beat him.”
Miska Young responded with a quick fall for the Gators at 215 pounds, the team’s first victory of the night. With 42 free points on the board, however, Port’s lead was plenty wide enough.
The Gators will be back in action Monday at the Allegheny Mountain League championships, held at Bradford High. After that, a potential Neely-Thompson rematch could be in store at the District 9 Class 2A tournament Feb. 25.
“There were times in the season where we were giving up pins, and I think we’ve kind of matured through that and wrestled well,” Greenman said. “There are still some improvements we have to make but we’re looking forward to seeing this team because it’s basically the same group next year with some additions from junior high.”
PORT ALLEGANY 51, BROCKWAY 21 107 — Gage Park (B), forfeit 114 — Ian O’Shea (P), forfeit 121 — Nick Wilfgong (P), forfeit 127 — Christian Rothermel (P), forfeit 133 — Parker Pisarchick (B) p. 1:03 Colton Furgeson (P) 139 — James Nichols (B) p. 3:42 Colton Ross (P) 145 — Alden Furgeson (P), forfeit 152 — Rylan Arnold (P), forfeit 160 — Mason Gordon (P), forfeit 172 — Aiden Bliss (P), forfeit 189 — Seth Stewart (B) dec. 1-0 Juuso Young (P) 215 — Miska Young (P) p. 1:34 Johnathan Winnings (B) 285 — Carson Neely (P) dec. 3-0 Gavin Thompson (B)
