No. 1-ranked Kiski Area uses 8 pins to take down Penn-Trafford

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, December 19, 2018 | 9:48 PM

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Kiski Area’s wrestlers turn pins into something of a competition, with an award given at the team banquet to the wrestler with the most falls and T-shirts for each pin under 30 seconds or a minute.

Beyond that, the Cavaliers have made the pins into something of an art form, and they proved their mastery again Wednesday night.

Eight Kiski Area wrestlers registered pins as the Class AAA No. 1 Cavaliers rolled to a 60-12 win over Penn-Trafford in their Section 1-AAA home opener.

“Maybe it’s something inside of us, but it’s not really a thing that we express,” said senior 152-pounder Cam Conner, who had one of the pins. “You always just want to go out and follow it up.”

The Cavaliers (2-0, 2-0), who won team titles at the Eastern Area Invitational Wrestling Tournament and Armstrong Holiday Classic in the first two weekends of the season, won eight of the 10 contested bouts — all by pin — and wrapped up their victory in a tidy 44 minutes.

“We performed really strong,” Connor said. “After last week, we wanted to turn up our intensity for section matches. We had a close one against Norwin (a 42-27 victory), and I think we did that tonight. We came out strong, had a bunch of really quick falls.”

Two-time defending WPIAL Class AAA champion Kiski Area is preparing for a meet Friday at Canon-McMillan in which the Cavaliers will face two of their top competitors in the race for the WPIAL crown: No. 2 Canon-Mac and No. 4 Seneca Valley, not to mention upcoming tests at the Powerade Christmas Tournament and Westmoreland County Coaches Association championships.

But the Cavaliers didn’t look past Penn-Trafford, a team they were reunited with in their newly realigned subsection.

“It’s just nice to wrestle teams that are very well-coached and have kids that are tough and wrestle hard,” Kiski Area coach Chris Heater said. “I thought our guys wrestled well tonight. We’ve been on the road a good bit already, and we’re going to be on the road a lot, so they’re going to enjoy each time we get to roll the mats out here.”

Kiski Area got pins from senior Darren Miller (132 pounds), Sammy Starr (138), Connor, Jack Blumer (160), Nick Delp (170), Dylan Mullen (182), Troy Kuhn (220) and Stone Joseph (heavyweight). Brayden Roscosky and Antonio Giordano won by forfeit at 195 and 106 pounds, respectively.

Penn-Trafford (0-2, 0-2), wrestling without three of its starters because of injury, got a sudden-victory overtime win from 145-pounder Nick Coy and a 3-2 decision by Ryan Auel at 113 pounds, plus a forfeit win by Troy Hohman at 106.

“The few positives that there were, we’ve got to dig and find them,” Warriors coach Rich Ginther said. “The matches that didn’t go our way, they didn’t even come close to going our way. They outwrestled us in every aspect of the game, and we’ve just got to get better.

“Our younger guys and less-experienced guys need to learn from these types of matches.”

Kiski Area, which also is missing some expected starters with injuries and illnesses, got its pins in all forms and fashions. Joseph, a freshman making his varsity debut after sitting out the opening of the season with a concussion, got the quickest in 20 seconds. Connor needed just 30 for his, and Delp, Miller, Kuhn and Mullen likewise had them in the first period.

“I’ve been pretty eager to get out there and get wrestling,” Joseph said. “First home match of the season, I was healthy enough to wrestle in it, and I wanted to go out and secure it for the team. It was a cool match. … You want to go out and wrestle to your best ability, and when you have kids on the team as good as us, it motivates you for sure.”

Penn-Trafford’s Peyton Kelly had Kuhn on his back early in the first period, but the Kiski Area senior fought back for a reversal and got a pin later in the period.

The match of the night pitted Coy, a PIAA fifth-place finisher last season against Kiski Area freshman Enzo Morlacci. Each traded a takedown and two escapes in regulation before Coy recorded the winning takedown in the 60-second sudden victory period.

“They came out and took care of business at home for the first time this year,” Heater said. “My hat’s off to our guys because I thought they wrestled hard tonight.”

Doug Gulasy is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Doug at dgulasy@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dgulasy_Trib.

Tags: Kiski School, Penn-Trafford