Conestoga Valley wrestlers hold off Hempfield, score key L-L League Section 1 win

Wednesday night’s Conestoga Valley at Hempfield wrestling match should’ve been held under the auspices of WIOV-FM, Country 105 on the radio.

It was a fall fest.

Eleven of the night’s 13 bouts ended in pins. The visiting Buckskins won seven of them on the way to a 42-30 Lancaster-Lebanon League Section One victory. A victory that was not assured until the Bucks’ Tal Stoltzfus wired up Andrew Edye at 285, scoring the final fall of the night at 3:56.

“You can’t get pinned seven times and win a dual meet,” said Shane Mack, whose Black Knights fell to 3-2 in Section One, 6-4 overall. “We’re getting better, little by little, but there are no quick fixes in this sport.”

The morning line had CV (5-0, 11-1) winning seven bouts, Hempfield winning three with three bouts rated tossups. That was before CV 160-pounder Luke Needham (18-4) reported sick, before Knights 114-pounder Omar Vargas (9-7) missed weight.

“It hit us by surprise,” Bucks coach Charlie Combs said of Needham’s absence. “Luke was sick and our backup, Andrew Stoltzfoos, Plan B, was sick. It was like Plan C, and we didn’t have one.”

The result was a lot of shifting and bumping by both lineups, maneuvering that created a wildly entertaining, if nerve wracking, 90 minutes of action.

“Oh my goodness,” said Combs, “that was fun. Wrestling’s fun and that was fun. A huge team effort.”

The Bucks jumped out 18-0 on falls from Sean Morley (13-9) at 107 over Julian Brito (2-2), Nick Horton (18-9) at 114 over Charlie Williams (3-12) and Caden Yanarella (29-7) at 121 over Noah Caslow (1-9).

Brady Deck (8-8) put the Knights on the board, running an armbar with 24 seconds left to break open a 6-0 match with Townsen Bagley (11-14), securing the fall in 5:39. Likewise Luke Morley (24-7) ran an armbar to flatten the Knights’ Sutton Schopf (2-9) in 48 seconds at 133.

From there things went off script.

Combs bumped 139-pounder Tanner Kane up to 145, sending Bryce Bowman (1-3) out to face Seamus Mack (17-2). Mack needed just 39 seconds to secure the pin, his 13th of the season.

Kane (22-7) answered, improving a third-period fireman’s carry into a cradle and fall over Nico Chasser (1-3) and a 30-12 lead for the Bucks.

A lead that was by no means comfortable.

“They were not going to go down lightly,” Combs said of the Knights.

In the Knights’ early game plan, Kyle Deisley (15-4) was going to bump up to face Needham. With Needham scratched, he stayed home and made short work of Teagan Ruble (22-7), who was bumped from 145 to 152. He took Ruble down in a single-leg to a cradle to a fall in 27 seconds.

The Knights’ Deshawn Jones (9-7) won the first match of the night to go the full six minutes, sealing a 5-2 victory over Miles Acosta (13-10) at 160 with a double-leg takedown with 42 seconds left.

The Bucks’ Abdoul Akala (21-5) flirted with a tech fall before cradling Kain Hayden (1-5) in 2:34 at 172, putting CV up by 15 points with three bouts to go.

The Knights needed to sweep those final three bouts, getting at least two falls, to win on criteria and JJ Plaza (19-4) did his part, pinning Tyler Stoltzfus (6-14) at 189.

CV hearts leapt to their collective throats as Hempfield’s Nicky Bruno (10-8) took Cam Zoll down to his back. He held him there for over a minute before Zoll (15-10) fought to his belly. Zoll turned the tables in the second period, taking Bruno down to his back late in the period to take a 6-5 lead.

Up 7-6 in the third period Bruno turned Zoll once more, his chance at the fall foiled when Zoll was, momentarily, injured in the pinning combination. Bruno settled for a 10-7 decision, leaving the final determination to the skills and wiles of Edye (7-9) and Stoltzfus (23-4).

Scoreless after a period, Stoltzfus went up 3-0 on an escape and takedown and bundled Edye’s arms, turning him to his back. Edye fought that off, but couldn’t elude Stoltzfus’ second shot at the bundle.

“They’re just way more consistent throughout the lineup,” Mack said of the Bucks. “We would have had to have a lot of things go our way to steal the match.”

“We have a lot of goals ahead of us,” Combs said, “so it’s on to the next one.”

The next one for CV is a visit to Manheim Township next Wednesday, a dangerous matchup despite the Bucks’ 47-22 victory in last weekend’s Blue Streak Duals. The league season closes with unpredictable McCaskey visiting CV’s Allen Uyeda Gym the following Wednesday.

“We’re not looking past either one of them,” Combs said.

The Black Knights make their annual visit to the Hampton Coliseum in Virginia Beach this weekend to compete in the Virginia Duals. Then it’s league dates with Solanco and at Township to close out what’s become a season of growth.

“A lot of our guys are going through the fire right now,” said Mack, noting, “when they’re newer, their growth is exponential.”