Whippets grind out win over Coatesville
CALN — When the night was through, Downingtown West senior Joe Rennie was tired and bruised.
He walked away victorious via technical fall, but getting to that point wasn’t nearly as easy as the score indicated. Such was the night for the Whippets, who knocked off Coatesville for the second time in two weeks, 43-23, on the road in the Ches-Mont National Division dual meet.
West (2-0 division, 7-0 overall) trailed by 10 early and wouldn’t get the lead for good until Rennie’s tech fall just passed the midway mark. The Whippets won eight of the last 11 bouts to stay tied for the division lead with Downingtown East as well as strengthening their case for the District 1 Duals, which begin a week from today.
“We wanted to go out and wrestle hard and we knew it would be even harder since (Coatesville) had nothing to lose after already losing to us last week,” Rennie said. “I knew I had to go out and battle and be a leader for the team. We always talk about wrestling six minutes and getting bonus when we can and not giving up any and we tried to do that as much as possible.”
West beat Coatesville, 48-22, at the Ram Duals a week and a half prior, so there were nine rematches Wednesday night. None of them were reversed, but most were more competitive.
Coatesville (0-2, 5-5) got off to a fast start with a major decision by Sean McBride (182 pounds) and decisions by Alex Raimondo (195) and Jordan Wise (220).
After pins by Chad Giles (285) and Doug Zapf (106) put West on top by two, Nate Gathercole (113) tilted the score back in Coatesville’s favor with a third-period pin. But the Red Raiders would only get wins from Colin McBride (145) and Chase Stephens (152) the rest of the way.
For McBride, it was his 104th victory for his career.
“It’s fantastic,” Coatesville coach Bear Stephens said. “Colin has busted his butt for the last three and a half years and he’s one of our workhorses. It’s great to see somebody earn that where he’s been, especially last year, jumping two weight classes for the postseason.”
Chase Hanak scored a first-period takedown and held on for a 2-0 win at 120 for West, and Rennie and Nick Lilley (132) used back-to-back tech falls to start the Whippets run.
Coatesville was without two starters, Ryan Dellicompagni and Brent Windle, and West capitalized, as Alex Murta (138) won by fall to push the lead to 15.
“We tried to get as many bonus points and a couple of their good guys were out and some guys who weren’t as good were in the middle of the lineup and we got as many points as we could,” Rennie said. “It gave us some cushion for the other guys.”
Coatesville could have made things interesting with Colin McBride and Stephens, but Gavin Hale (145) used a third-period reverse to hold McBride to a decision and Gio Angelini (152) staved off Stephens, who won his 94th career bout, enough for just a major decision.
“I told our guys all week this wouldn’t be the same team we saw two weeks ago,” West coach Brad Breese said. “Luckily for us they had two guys out, and I think we were a little tight in some spots. We’re not used to wrestling from the top. We’re used to wrestling from behind and hopefully we’ll get used to that and adjust.”
Joe Shafer (160) and Cole Zapf (170) closed out the night for West with pins. The Whippets are likely strong candidates for one of the 16 slots in district duals when the seeding meeting takes place Sunday. With just three seniors in the starting lineup, whatever experience West gets will be valuable for the future.
“I think we’ll fill in anywhere from 10, down,” Breese said of the seeding. “I think we’re as good as any team outside of the top five and I think we can have a respectable showing.”
Both teams are slated to compete at the Exeter Blue/White duals Saturday, but the weather might have something to say if these two could potentially see each other a third time.
Downingtown West 43, Coatesville 23
182- S. McBride (CV) maj. dec. Clements, 10-2 (0-4)
195- Raimondo (CV) dec. Titus, 6-2 (0-7)
220- Wise (CV) dec. Duplicki, 3-1 SV (0-10)
285- Giles (DW) pinned Ay. Geter, 2:25 (6-10)
106- D. Zapf (DW) pinned Moses, 2:41 (12-10)
113- Gathercole (CV) pinned Cardi, 5:35 (12-16)
120- Hanak (DW) dec. Torres, 2-0 (15-16)
126- Rennie (DW) tech. fall Norman, 6:00 (20-16)
132- Lilley (DW) tech. fall Evans, 4:32 (25-16)
138- Murta (DW) pinned Fields, :58 (31-16)
145- C. McBride (CV) dec. Hale, 9-2 (31-19)
152- Stephens (CV) maj. dec. Angelini, 15-2 (31-23)
160- Shafer (DW) pinned Au. Geter, 3:13 (37-23)
170- C. Zapf (DW) pinned Groce, 1:51 (43-23)
