HERSHEY >> The monkey is more than just off Boyertown’s collective backs.
It’s caged, with three locks, and put away far from the Bears’ joyous run in the PIAA Team Championships’ Class AAA bracket.
After two years of earlier exits from the state duals tourney, Boyertown is going for the gold. The Bears achieved that Friday at the Giant Center by scoring wins over Canon McMillan (37-20) and Nazareth (38-19).
“Huge focus,” head coach Pete Ventresca said about his team’s quarterfinal-round win over CM — the round that tripped up the Bears (22-0) in the past. In each instance, the locals were eliminated in the second round of consolations by District 11 power Parkland.
But that dubious “threepeat” won’t materialize this time. Instead, the Bears will go for gold against Bethlehem Catholic, a 33-30 winner over Belle Vernon in the other AAA semifinal.
“That helped,” Ventresca said of the win over Canon McMillan. “The kids knew they had a job to do, and that’s why we did what we did.”
Lucas Miller secured the championship-match berth with his 3-0 decision at 126, one of two close bouts at the end that put Boyertown over the top. His win over Nazareth’s Trevor Tarsi came after David Campbell gutted out a 3-1 verdict at 120, and Jakob Campbell went overtime for a 6-4 decision at 113.
“I was hoping to score in the third and clinch the victory,” Miller said. He did just that, following a release by Tarsi with a takedown good for a match-securing 33-13 lead.
“Our team is 14 to 20 guys strong,” he added. “We go out there with the same mentality … if we wrestle our match, we’re going to win.”
Nazareth won three of the first four weights to assume a 10-3 lead, the run broken up by Hunter Vogels’ decision at 152. But the lead was quickly erased by the Bears, starting with Gregg Harvey’s 3:35 pin of Ryan Herceg at 182.
Brody O’Connell followed with a 6-4 overtime decision of Tucker Klump at 195. Jordan Wood padded the 12-10 advantage by decking AJ Vlasaty 31 seconds into the 220-pound bout, and Tommy Killoran kept the run going with his 3:40 drop of Antonio Noviello at 285.
“There were a lot of toss-up matches,” Ventresca noted. “Winning them really paid off. It was tight … they could have gone either way.”
With the team win secured, Garrett Mauger put an emphatic capper at 132 with a 17-0 run against Ian Pulli that got him the tech-fall at 132.
“It was an all-team win,” Ventresca said. “I couldn’t single any individuals out. They all came out fighting. Every kid performed.”
Boyertown came to Hershey pursued by the demon of those previous early exits from the state duals. It exorcised that demon in convincing fashion, to say the least.
“It feels really good,” Jordan Wood, whose pin at 220 staked the Bears to a 27-11 lead with five bouts to go in the quarters, said. “Collectively, we wrestled well.”
Along with Wood, Boyertown benefited from pins by Chris Berry (145) and Harvey (182), as well as Matt Wilde’s major decision at 106. It all helped make a difference against the Big Macs, whose best individual effort was Blaze Tenesco’s technical fall at 160.
“We (captains) didn’t have to do much to get the guys ready,” Wood said. “We’re an experienced team. Almost our entire lineup knew what happened the last two years.”
The clincher for Boyertown, ironically, came at a weight CM won. Logan Macri’s decision at 113 cut the Bears’ lead to 31-17, but it came at a juncture where the Macs needed to get six points at each of the final three weights to come away with a one-point win.
“It was one of our biggest matches of the year,” Miller said. “If you’re not focused for one like this, there’s something wrong with you.”
NOTES >> The tournament’s medal round will be preceded by two rounds of AAA consolations Saturday. The action starts at 9 a.m. with fourth-round consis, followed by Round Four at 11 a.m. … Brookville and Saucon Valley will square off in the AA title match, running alongside the Boyertown/Bethlehem Catholic duel. Third-place matches for both classes will also take place at 1 p.m.
