FAIRVIEW VILLAGE -- The plan for the Boyertown wrestling team entering the District 1 Class AAA Duals Tournament was simple - make a statement and get off to a quick start.
Just a few matches into their first-round matchup with 16th-seeded Unionville on Thursday night and the message to the rest of the duals field was received loud and clear.
The Bears jumped out to an early 28-0 lead thanks to a major decision victory by J.T. Cooley at 132 pounds and four straight pins from Chris Berry (138), Hunter Vogels (145), Elijah Jones (152) and Reuben Maldanado (160) and never looked back en route to a 68-6 win.
With the victory, top-seeded and defending champion Boyertown will face ninth-seeded Upper Perkiomen, a 36-30 winner over West Chester Rustin, at 6 p.m. on Jan. 30.
"You know, when things get rolling sometimes they just keep rolling, and fortunately for us tonight, that's what happened,' said Boyertown head coach Pete Ventresca. "Our kids just came out and wrestled. We don't underestimate anybody and we came at [Unionville], and we wrestled well. I was pleased with our guys' performance.'
The four early falls were just the beginning for the Bears, who seemed to have their way with Unionville all night, with the closest bout coming at 170 where Dylan Wertz battled to a scoreless first period with the Indians' Ryan Margolin but used a pair of second-period takedowns, a pair of near-fall points and an escape to jump out to a 7-3 lead. Wertz then extended his lead in the third period when Margolin, who had chosen the bottom position to start, sent an elbow flying into Wertz's face for a penalty point and later surrendered another point on a caution, giving Wertz the 9-3 victory.
If the close bout at 170 had given Unionville any hope of a late charge, though, 182-pounder Will School dashed those hopes in grand fashion, scoring a fall in just 50 seconds over Dylan Smallacombe that started a string of three straight by Scholl, Gregg Harvey (195) and Brody O'Connell (220).
"It always helps when you can get six points,' Scholl said. "It gets the team pumped up and gets them wrestling harder.'
After picking up six more points on a forfeit at 285, five more on a Matt Wilde tech fall at 106 and three more on Jakob Campbell's 7-1 decision at 113 to make it 63-0, the Indians finally got on the board, albeit in controversial fashion.
Up 2-0 midway through the second period, the Indians Matt Challas had Boyertown 120 pounder Dominic DeRafelo broken down on his stomach and looking to turn him. Challas then reached in for a crossface only to immediately pull his arm back out and claim that he had been bitten.
The match referee inspected Challas' arm and immediately awarded him the win by disqualification, a win the Boyertown coaching staff and DeRafelo - who had been wearing a mouthpiece - adamantly denied.
"[The referee] said it was a bite,' Ventresca said, declining further comment on the issue.
Several members of the media seemed to be in agreement after the match that there appeared to be no bite on the part of DeRafelo, as the action took place right in front of the media table and no such action appeared to take place.
The Bears then sealed the deal with a Lucas Miller tech fall at 126 to make it a 68-6 match.
"I will let them enjoy [the win] on the bus ride home, but then it is all business again,' Ventresca said. "We will refocus and put everything in the rearview mirror. You're only as good as your next match and that's what we will be focused on. We're just going to keep going, one match at a time.'
Scholl agreed.
"Other teams are going to be coming looking for us, but we're ready for that,' he said. "We just have to keep wrestling well.
"We usually only take about five minutes to celebrate a match, and then we are right on our way getting ready for the next match.'
