No.11 Mountain Hawks drop 30-10 final in BJC Dual at No. 2 Penn State
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – No. 11 Lehigh won two of the first three bouts to take an early 7-3 lead on No. 2-ranked and defending national champion Penn State, but the Nittany Lions battled back to take six of the last seven bouts, scoring bonus points in four of those victories in a 30-10 win over the Mountain Hawks Sunday in front of 15,424 fans at the Bryce Jordan Center.
Senior
Randy Cruz and sophomore
Ryan Preisch both improved to 7-0 on the season, while sophomore
Scott Parker posted an impressive major decision to pace the Mountain Hawks, who fall to 3-1 on the dual season.
"We saw some really good things today and we saw some things that we really need to work on," Lehigh head coach
Pat Santoro said. "It is good that we had this match early because after today we saw that we have a lot of work to do. I thought Penn State wrestled aggressive which we knew they were going to. We just need to be better and get better."
Penn State improves to 3-0 in duals. Sunday's match was the 105th battle between the longtime Pennsylvania rivals. The Nittany Lions have now won seven straight in the series to take a 68-34-3 lead.
"One thing you know about Penn State is that they're going to wrestle well and we want teams that are going wrestle us," Santoro said. "Our game plan was to get to our positions and be disciplined to hopefully keep the crowd out of the match. I think a lot of guys did that, but sometimes we just got beat because we got overpowered. For the most part I thought our guys fought pretty hard."
The dual featured 16 nationally ranked wrestlers, with the first four bouts matching ranked wrestlers against one another. Penn State true freshman Nick Suriano opened the dual by handing junior
Darian Cruz his first loss of the season in a battle of top six men at 125. Suriano scored seven points in the second period on an escape, takedown and four point near fall, which were the only points of the match in a 7-0 decision.
Parker posted Lehigh's first win of the dual with his 12-4 major decision of Jered Cortez at 133. Behind two takedowns and a late two point near fall, Parker led 6-1 after one and he added an escape in the second period plus two takedowns in the third to go along with a 1:45 riding time advantage.
"Scotty had a tough loss to Jered here last year at the Penn State Open, but today he rebounded well," Santoro said. "He got the points he needed, but he did not let up. We want guys that are going to wrestle for seven minutes and continuously look to score. He is definitely the MVP of today."
Randy Cruz made it two straight wins for the Mountain Hawks, using a second period reversal and solid scrambling throughout to defeat Jimmy Gulibon 2-0.
Penn State's two top-ranked wrestlers then delivered back-to-back bonus wins to put the Nittany Lions in control for good. At 149 Zain Retherford built a 9-1 lead on senior
Laike Gardner before securing a win by fall at the 3:55 mark. Jason Nolf followed with a 25-9 technical fall over deferred freshman
Kent Lane, who was subbing for classmate
Jordan Kutler as Penn State took a 14-7 lead into intermission.
The Nittany Lions extended their lead at 165 as Vincenzo Joseph scored two takedowns in each of the first two periods in a 10-5 decision over junior
Drew Longo.
Preisch had to rally from behind to pick up Lehigh's final win of the day. Facing Shakur Rasheed at 174, Preisch fell behind 2-1 and saw a second Rasheed takedown waved off after video review. Preisch scored his first takedown late in the second period to tie the match at 3-3. After escaping to go up 4-3 early in the third period, Preisch capitalized on a desperation throw attempt by Rasheed for a late takedown to win 6-3.
Penn State took the final three bouts with third-ranked Bo Nickal pinning freshman
Kyle Gentile in the first period at 184 and Matt McCutcheon dealing senior
Ben Haas a 12-2 major decision. In the final bout of the dual, Penn State's Nick Nevills built a 7-2 lead and was bidding for a takedown to get a major decision but senior
Doug Vollaro countered for a score of his own as Nevills prevailed 8-4.
The announced crowd of 15,424 is the largest dual meet crowd Lehigh has ever wrestled in front of. It is the eighth largest dual meet crowd all-time and the sixth largest dual meet crowd.
"You are not going to find a tougher crowd to wrestle in front of," Santoro said. "It is a great environment for our guys to be involved with because you are never going to be in a place where there are this many people who are rooting against you. To feel that pressure and for the guys to keep their composure is great. For those who let the crowd paly a factor are going to grow and learn from being in a place like this."
The Mountain Hawks will return home for two duals next weekend to close out the fall semester. Lehigh will host No. 25 Princeton Friday at 7 p.m. inside Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall and then will take on Drexel Sunday at 2 p.m. at Grace Hall. Tickets are available and can be purchased by visiting LehighTickets.com or by calling 610-7LU-GAME during normal business hours.
No. 2 Penn Statem 30, No. 11 Lehigh 10
125 – Nick Suriano (PSU) dec.
Darian Cruz (Lehigh) 7-0
133 –
Scott Parker (Lehigh) major dec. Jered Cortez (PSU) 12-4
141 –
Randy Cruz (Lehigh) dec. Jimmy Gulibon (PSU) 2-0
149 – Zain Retherford (PSU) Fall
Laike Gardner (Lehigh) 3:55
157 – Jason Nolf (PSU) tech fall
Kent Lane (Lehigh) 25-9, 6:38
165 – Vincenzo Joseph (PSU) dec.
Drew Longo (Lehigh) 10-5
174 –
Ryan Preisch (Lehigh) dec. Shakur Rasheed (PSU) 6-3
184 – Bo Nickal (PSU) Fall
Kyle Gentile (Lehigh) 2:35
197 – Matt McCutcheon (PSU) major dec.
Ben Haas (Lehigh) 12-2
285 – Nick Nevills (PSU) dec.
Doug Vollaro (Lehigh) 8-4
Attendance – 15,424
Officials –Angel Rivera and Michael Millward
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