Wissahickon rolls past Upper Dublin, claims Fireside Cup for 4th straight year
LOWER GWYNEDD >> It did not take long for Kevin Salmon to add another pin to the Wissahickon wrestling team’s total.
“It was definitely strange getting my fastest pin in high school on Senior Night,” he said. “But a pin’s a pin so I don’t care if it takes five minutes and 59 seconds or 16 seconds.”
It took Salmon just the later to finish his 170-pound match with Upper Dublin’s Max Zelkind in 16 seconds, converting a early takedown into a fall on the edge of the mat.
“When I took the shot, the kid didn’t really react, so he was already going backwards so I kind of just grabbed up on his upper body to put him in a pinning combination,” Salmon said. “I wasn’t expecting it to be that quick, but once he was already exposed to his back, I knew at that point that it was over.
“So I got an under-hook on one side and then I just put all my weight on the other side and he just couldn’t fight it.”
The Trojans added pins in the next three matches to finish with a total of eight Wednesday night as they rolled past rival Upper Dublin, retaining the Fireside Cup for the fourth straight season with a 63-15 SOL American dual meet victory.
“We had three pins that honestly were a little unexpected, you turn those around the score’s a little closer but we wrestled really nice,” Wissahickon coach Anthony Stagliano said. “It’s really the first time all year that we’ve had DJ Adriaanse and (Alex) Prieston in the lineup at the same time cause Prieston was hurt and DJ had some weight things and whatever, so that was probably our best lineup we put on the mat all year. So that was good.”
The visiting Cardinals (4-`15, 1-4 conference) won the first two matches by pin – Dan Gorman in 44 seconds at 106 then Tommy Clayton at 3:08 at 113 – but Adriaanse earned a fall in 1:13 over UD’s Colin Higgins at 126 to start a string of 11 straight wins by Wissahickon (5-10, 2-4).
“The move he did, it was something we practice and stuff, so it wasn’t totally out of the blue but that was huge,” said Stagliano of Adriaanse’s pin. “That was huge and also in sports it’s a momentum swing, too. We get pinned there or something and you never know what happens in sports, high school sports, too. “
All four Wissahickon seniors earned victories on the night – Salmon, Joey Brogan (145) and Dan Keller (220) by pin with Christian Smalley claiming a 13-2 major decision over Griffin Johnson at 126.
“(Upper Dublin) coach (Dave) Jones was very classy in the fact that he didn’t want any of seniors to get forfeits and he moved some guys around so our guys could get a match,” Stagliano said. “If it was a normal situation, he could of done some other things, made it a little close but he did a classy move by not forfeiting the seniors and putting guys in the match so I give him a lot of credit for that.”
Keller’s win was the 99th of his career, giving him the chance to reach the 100-victory milestone at home Thursday in the Trojans’ 7 p.m. nonleague dual meet against Penncrest.
“The ultimate goal is states – that’s always still number one or placing in states, that’s his goal or winning states,” said Stagliano of Keller. “But secondary to that number two would be to be on that (100-win) banner forever.”
Upper Dublin hosts Plymouth Whitemarsh in a SOL American matchup 7 p.m. Monday.
Smalley’s major decision pulled Wissahickon within 12-10 with Prieston pins in 1:53 at 132 pounds giving the Trojans the lead for good. At 138, Matt Fritz’s 17-2 technical fall in 4:00 made it 21-12 Wissahickon.
Brogan, who came back to the sport this season after wrestling in seventh and eighth grade, claimed his second varsity win, pinning Gavin Rockey at 4:25 in their 145-pound match.
“I just got really tired and wanted a big move so decided to hit the headlock,” Brogan said. “And then ended up working out which made me happy.”
Beginning with Brogan at 145, Wissahickon collected seven pins over a stretch of eight matches, the lone non-fall a forfeit victory for the Trojans at 160.
“I thought we wrestled well,” Salmon said. “We did what we needed to do. All week we were talking about it, preparing for this match. With the league kind of out of reach, said this is our next biggest thing, our next biggest step to complete. We got what we needed to get done.”
Daniel Barbosa got a comeback pin at 195, trailing Riley Hackett 12-4 in the third period before claiming a fall at 5:15 to put Wissahickon up 57-12 lead. Keller followed at 220 with his pin in 2:37.
Connor Devitt gave Upper Dublin its third win with a 7-0 decision over Ryan Lee at 285 but Stagliano was pleased with Lee’s effort.
“He got pinned in 20 seconds by that kid on Saturday (at SOL American Championships) and I told him before he went out, if you could just do better than you did Saturday, I’ll be happy,” Stagliano said. “If he’d gotten pinned in a minute I would’ve been happy and he made it the whole match. That was some heart there so I was very pleased with that match.
“So honestly everything went our way. Sometimes that doesn’t happen.”
