UPPER PROVIDENCE >> When Pope John Paul II needed a pin the most, junior Sean Fallon stepped up and delivered.
The Golden Panthers 32-point lead was trimmed to nine after four Upper Merion pins. With three matches left – the final being a Pope John Paul II forfeit – PJP needed to win one of the next two.
Fallon stepped to the mat and came through, pinning his opponent in the first period and clinching the Golden Panthers a victory. They picked up a Pioneer Athletic Conference win, 38-35, Wednesday night at Pope John Paul II High School.
“Can’t lose,” Fallon said of his mindset. “Can’t let down my coaches, can’t let down my boys. Just go out there and wrestle my butt off.”
“I just told (Fallon) get out there and kick the kid’s butt,” PJP coach Mike Moyano said. “Go out and have fun, told him we need a solid match out of you right now. The rest was in his hands.”
Brady Pires (114), Roland Oris (121), Gianni Ponzio (133) and Owen Claffey (139) also won with pins for PJP. Cole Dimitri (107) and Riley Lumpkin (127) won by points, 9-1 and 11-3, respectively.
“Our lower weights are definitely our strong point,” Moyano said, “but our 89-pounder is the one that puts the match out of reach for them. Every kid is kind of like the new kid of the day who comes out and wins a match for us that we aren’t really expecting.”
Upper Merion (8-6, 1-2 PAC) got pins from Jowell Jones (145), Casey Lamey (152), Luis Romero (160), Parker Lukens (172) and Eric Delaluz (215). Jones’ pin came with just one second left in the second period. Joseph Zapien won the heavyweight match via forfeit.
Upper Merion’s Jowell Jones record a second-period pin in his 145-pound match against Pope John Paul II Wednesday. (Ed Morlock/MediaNews Group)
Pope John Paul II moves to 6-5 overall and 1-2 in the PAC after the win. With a first-year head coach and a host of new wrestlers on the team, the Golden Panthers are happy with where they are heading into the PAC championships this weekend.
“I think we’re improving every day,” Moyano said. “We’ve got really a brand new team, a lot of young kids. Most kids haven’t even wrestled before – this is their first year. I just tell them every day you come in the room make sure you’re improving, even if it’s minuscule, come out and improve.
“(Getting over .500) is huge. I know in the past PJP typically doesn’t have high numbers of kids on the team. Winning a dual meet is automatically a tough thing. If we win out the rest of the season, we can actually finish third in the division, plus we still have one more dual meet tournament. We theoretically could win over 10 dual meets this year, which would be amazing.”
“It’s good to start winning these meets,” Fallon, one of the team’s first-year wrestlers, said. “We’re trying to improve our program, build our program… Every win is important. Every match is important.”
