EAST WHITELAND — If the 2008-09 team is the standard for Great Valley wrestling, the current version used a minor duplication to realize progress.
It had been since 2009 that the Patriots defeated Ches-Mont American Division rival, Unionville, and Wednesday, in front of their home crowd, they scratched another off the goal list with a 51-25 victory.
Great Valley used six pins and big win by Ethan Seeley (182 pounds) over the Indians’ top wrestler, Tyler Mousaw, to clear the Unionville hurdle.
“It’s great for our confidence,” Seeley said. “ A lot of people don’t think we’ve wrestled anyone good, and Unionville is still a good team. I’m just glad our coach (Mike Semar) can sleep at night now that we finally beat Unionville.”
Great Valley’s Tyler Lafferty pins at 285 (Nate Heckenberger – For Digital First Media)
Semar is in his fourth year at the helm of Great Valley (2-2 division, 18-3 overall), and has the Pats headed in the right direction.
Where things had gotten fuzzy the past few seasons, Great Valley was able to pull out not only victories, but pins. Up 15-7, Tyler Humphreys (220), Tyler Lafferty (285) and Ken Levin (106) earned falls to push the margin to 26.
“The last three years we never wrestled (Unionville) very well,” Semar said. “They got their three better kids back in the lineup so we knew it would be a tough match. I thought 220 was a toss-up and our heavyweight got a big win.”
Prior to that Patriots run, Unionville (1-3, 3-10) made the match of the night happen. Coach Bill Taylor decided to bump Mousaw up, forgoing potential points at 170 to do so.
“We wanted to make sure we got our best against their best,” Taylor said. “I was looking forward to that match all week. Tyler has been wrestling tough and he was giving up a lot of weight, but you need matches like that to get better for the postseason.”
Great Valley’s Ethan Seeley (Nate Heckenberger – For Digital First Media)
In the first, Seeley connected with a blast double, and started the second on top. Mousaw reversed him, but Seeley worked another reversal soon after, and after an escape, the match was tied at four heading into the third.
“I knew he’d go for spladles and cradles so I had to stay away from that,” Seeley said. “I knew I could get him on my feet and just tried to wrestle smart.”
Seeley maneuvered another reversal in the third and held off Mousaw for the 6-5 decision to move to 26-0 on the season.
“That match was great,” Semar said. “Tyler is dangerous in so many positions and Ethan probably had to change his style more, but now he knows he can be successful with those kids. People look at our schedule, and it’s average from a difficulty standpoint, so they don’t know how good Ethan is. Ethan is a really good wrestler.”
With the dual clinched, Unionville went out with three wins in the final five bouts. Dom Chaclas (120), Jacob Lehman (126) and Chase Devitto (138) registered pins for the Indians.
Unionville’s Dom Chaclas (Nate Heckenberger – For Digital First Media)
“A lot of our guys are young and don’t have experience,” Taylor said. “We are improving, but we have to learn to not give up wrist control and a lot of the basics. It’s simple things to keep working on and hopefully some guys do stuff in the offseason and can become more competitive.”
Also pinning for Great Valley was Jack Semar (152), Aidan O’Neil (132) and Luke Wilson (145), who is at 92 career wins.
The Patriots will compete in the District 1 Duals, Thursday, locking up with perennial district power, Boyertown, at 7 pm. at West Chester Rustin.
“We didn’t talk about the match with Boyertown because this was a big Ches-Mont match for us,” Mike Semar said. “The kids wrestled hard. We don’t have a ton of experience, but they work hard and have fun and we put them in a position to win and they took advantage of it.”
Great Valley 51, Unionville 25
152- Semar (GV) pinned McMahon, 1:41 (6-0)
160- Caldwell (UV) dec. Paolella, 6-1 (6-3)
170- Neale (GV) won by forfeit (12-3)
182- Seeley (GV) dec. Mousaw, 6-5 (15-3)
195- Stillman (UV) maj. dec. DiSanto, 11-3 (15-7)
220- Humphreys (GV) pinned Maguire, 3:32 (21-7)
285- Lafferty (GV) pinned Lyons, 3:16 (27-7)
106- Levin (GV) pinned Luzzi, 5:36 (33-7)
113- Capetola (GV) won by forfeit (39-7)
120- Chaclas (UV) pinned Stahl, 3:16 (39-13)
126- Lehman (UV) pinned Thornton, :29 (39-19)
132- O’Neil (GV) pinned Elsen, 1:32 (45-19)
138- Devitto (UV) pinned Greiser, 5:47 (45-25)
145- Wilson (GV) pinned Staropli, :44 (51-25)
