PHILADELPHIA - The Drexel wrestling team came from behind to defeat Penn by a 26-13 margin on Sunday afternoon and maintain ownership of the Abner's Cheesesteak Trophy. The Dragons trailed by 10 points halfway through the dual, but won out the remainder of the matches to close out the regular season on a high note.

The dual began with the 157 match and Penn scored first as May Bethea defeated Willie Davis by major decision. The Quakers' Joe Velliquette defeated Austin Rose at 165 and then No. 13 Casey Kent took a 4-0 decision from Ebed Jarrell at 174 to put Penn up, 10-0 early. At 184, Alex DeCiantis was able to get the Dragons on the board as he edged Joe Heyob, 3-2 with a takedown in the closing seconds of the match. However, the Quakers' No. 19 Frank Mattiace came back with a win over Joshua Murphy at 197 to give Penn back its 10-point advantage as the dual reached its midway point.

The Dragons' rally began as No. 17 Joey Goodhart came out of halftime with a 14-3 major decision over Tyler Hall in the heavyweight match. Tanner Shoap then picked up a 9-4 win over Jeremy Schwartz at 125 to bring the Dragons within three, 13-10. Drexel got its first lead of the day after a strong performance from No. 11 Kevin Devoy Jr. resulted in a technical fall over Carl Antrassian at 133. David Pearce then extended the Dragons lead with a technical fall of his own, putting the Dragons ahead 20-13 with one match to play. No. 18 Matthew Cimato won by injury default at 149 which wrapped up the day's competition and allowed Drexel to walk away with a victory over Penn in the Battle of 33rd Street for the second year in a row.

The Dragons finish the regular season with a 13-6 overall record and a 8-3 mark against conference opponents. Penn ends the year at 6-8 overall, 4-7 EIWA.

Drexel Wrestling will go on to compete in the EIWA Championships that will be held at Bucknell in Lewisburg, Pa on March 3 and 4.


DREXEL 26, PENN 13
157: May Bethea (Penn) MAJ Willie Davis (DU), 16-6
165: Joe Velliquette (Penn) DEC Austin Rose (DU), 6-2
174: No. 13 Casey Kent (Penn) DEC Ebed Jarrell (DU), 4-0
184: Alex DeCiantis (DU) DEC Joe Heyob (Penn), 3-2
197: No. 19 Frank Mattiace (Penn) DEC Joshua Murphy (DU), 4-1
285: No. 17 Joey Goodhart (DU) MAJ Tyler Hall (Penn), 14-3
125: Tanner Shoap (DU) DEC Jeremy Schwartz (Penn), 9-4
133: No. 11 Kevin Devoy Jr. (DU) TF Carl Antrassian (Penn), 16-1
141: David Pearce (DU) TF A.J. Vindici (Penn), 15-0
149: No. 18 Matthew Cimato (DU) def. Patrick Munn (Penn) by injury default @ 3:32