Quaker Valley comes up short in title defense, finishes third in WPIAL 2A wrestling championships

CHARTIERS TWP. — One year after shocking the WPIAL with a win over the Burrell Bucs in the WPIAL Class 2A wrestling championships, the Quaker Valley Quakers' program went from the hunters to the hunted.

Matching up in the same location against the same Burrell program Saturday in the WPIAL Class 2A semifinals, the Quakers couldn't hold off the Bucs' revenge tour, falling to Burrell 41-24 in the semifinals, coming up just short of a second straight team title.

Facing off against the Bucs on Saturday following wins over Jefferson Morgan (42-36) and McGuffey (44-21) to reach the semifinals at Chartiers-Houston High School, Quaker Valley got off to a rough start against the Bucs.

Things kicked off in the WPIAL Class 2A semifinal match between Burrell and Quaker Valley in the 172-pound weight class where Burrell's Isaac Lacinski pinned Quaker Valley's Aidan Fair in 59 seconds for a quick 6-0 lead. Burrell continued to rack up the pins as Cam Martin pinned Quaker Valley's Kris Brown in 5:49 of the 189-pound match, and Luke Boylan pinned Chase Kretzler in 4:52 of the 215-pound weight class for an 18-0 team lead.

"We were just trying to mitigate bonus points, that was kind of our gameplan going in," Quaker Valley head coach Austin Heinl told the Times following the third-place finish. "...If we could kind of keep the damage to a minimum — we have a pretty young team, a less experienced team; we lost a lot from last year — get those guys some experience. But we got caught on our back late in the match, but in a big match, especially against Burrell, you can't give up that many points."

From there, the Bucs continued to pick up team points moving into the 285-pound weight class. There, Burrell's Ian Quinn picked up a 3-2 decision win over Quaker Valley's Ben Carlson, giving the Bucs a 21-0 lead. Cam Barker then quickly dispatched Quaker Valley's Bruce Anderchak by major decision (9-1), moving the lead to 25-0.

Julian Bertucci then pinned Quaker Valley's Isaac Maccaglia in 1:34 of the 114-pound match to give Burrell an insurmountable 31-0 lead.

Quaker Valley tried to turn the tide though as standout Jack Kazalas pinned Burrell's Jacob Stewart in 2:41 of the 121-pound weight class, and Brandon Krul followed with a pin in 1:18 over Calio Zanella in the 127-pound weight class to make it a 31-12 match.

"We were in too big of a hole," Heinl said. "We weren't able to get off to a hot start. It was hard to crawl back."

Burrell got back on track though as Cooper Hornack pinned Quaker Valley's Wyatt Hamm in 50 seconds in the 133-pound weight class and Niko Ferra picked up a major decision win (12-1) over Quaker Valley's Michael Carmody in the 139-pound weight class for a 41-12 lead.

Quaker Valley picked up three wins to close the match as Jack Diemert (152 pounds) and Logan Richey (160 pounds) — who recently won his 100th career match — picked up forfeit wins, while Marcus Richey pinned Burrell's Shawn Oden in 4:54 of the 145-pound match to close out the semifinal bout in favor of Burrell, 41-24.

Burrell went on to lose to Burgettstown in the finals by a score of 31-24, while Quaker Valley faced off against Frazier with a spot in the PIAA Class 2A team state championships on the line.

Despite a tough loss to Burrell, Quaker Valley bounced back under Heinl's guidance, defeating Frazier 46-27 to clinch a spot in the state tournament later this month.

"We were able to get off to a hot start, get momentum going in our way," Heinl said. "We were scoring bonus points in the early matches, and we were able to build a lead. It was a good way to end the day."

Against Frazier, Quaker Valley started fast as Anderchak bounced back from a tough semifinal showing to pin Tanner Hayes in 17 seconds of the 107-pound match.

From there, Maccaglia, Kazalas, Krul and Carmody ripped off wins by fall, and Nick Allan picked up a major decision win over Frazier's Andrew Andish (10-2) in the 139-pound weight class.

Frazier got on the board after that thanks to wins by Jonah Erdely and Ryan Celaschi over Marcus and Logan Richey in the 145- and 152-pound matches, while Jackson Angelo and standout Rune Lawrence continued the Frazier run with wins by fall in just over 50 seconds in the 160- and 189-pound matches.

Kretzer sealed the win for the Quakers though by pinning Frazier's Josh Girvin in 3:35 of the 215-pound match, sending the Quakers to Hershey for the state tournament later this month.

Up next for Quaker Valley are the state pigtail round starting Monday, before the program begins to gear up for the 2A individual WPIAL championships.

"You gotta keep the team motivated. We still have some goals to obtain as a team," Heinl said. "We came up short on our WPIAL championship goals, but we're still looking for our first Quaker Valley team win in the state tournament. We're trying to get these guys fired up and ready to go for Monday and get our first team win for Quaker Valley."

Contact Joshua Carney at jcarney@gannett.com or 724-681-9136. Follow Joshua on Twitter: @ByJoshCarney

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Quaker Valley comes up short in title defense, finishes third in WPIAL 2A wrestling championships