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Pins help Warrior Run past Muncy

MUNCY – Elias George never really got his offense working through two periods of his bout Tuesday night. The Warrior Run junior was locked in a one-point bout with Muncy’s Junior Ramos for 4 minutes until he finally saw an opening. And when he did see it, George pounced.

He sunk a half-nelson in deep and scored a fall 19 seconds into the third period to open up a lead for the Defenders, and Nick Rohm followed with a fall of his own that forced Muncy to play catch up all night in a 47-22 win for Warrior Run. It was the 495th career win for Warrior Run head coach Wayne Smythe.

The wins for George and Rohm came on the back end of five wins in the first six bouts of the night for Warrior Run, as it opened up a 27-6 lead. But it was how the wins were recorded that seemed to sap some of the life out of Muncy.

George quickly turned what looked like a nip-and-tuck bout into a bonus-point win. Rohm was trailing 2-0 to Muncy’s T.J. Moyle before getting a reversal and sinking in a half-nelson to score his fall with 13 seconds left in the first period.

“We need points like that to win matches against a good team like Muncy,” Rohm said. “All of our kids can pin and once we started getting our pins, we knew we were going to pull ahead and we should win.”

“Pins are always good,” Smythe said. “We ended up on top and took advantage of the situation we were in there and got the pin. So we’re happy with that.”

George’s win was especially big for the Defenders because he’s missed a good chunk of the season with a shoulder injury. Prior to taking a forfeit against Milton on Saturday, George hadn’t wrestled since a Dec. 18 dual against Montoursville.

Last night he got involved in what essentially was a 4-minute handfight with Ramos as they both battled for position on their feet. The only breakup was the 10 seconds it took George to escape when he started down in the second period.

Ramos chose to start the third period down and as he tried to get loose, he opened the door for George to sink in the half-nelson, and the Defenders’ junior capitalized. The win was his first since the season-opening DKI Tournament on Dec. 8.

“We think he should have created some more opportunities earlier, but once he got on top he did a really good,” Smythe said. “He went to it, attacked well and he looked real good on top.”

“He’s been practicing and he’s in really good shape still,” Rohm said. “It looked like he got comfortable and then he won his match.”

Muncy ran off three consecutive bonus-point wins with a fall from Jake Colburn and technical falls from Troy Hembury and Skylar Ebner to cut the deficit to 27-22. But that was the last time the Indians won a bout.

Matt Kilgus earned a gutty 3-1 win in sudden victory against Nick Roberts after the bout was tied up with a stalling call with just 2 seconds to go. But Kilgus got behind Roberts early in overtime and brought him to the mat for the winning takedown.

“Nothing seemed to be going too right for him. He wasn’t doing anything wrong, it’s just the way the match was going,” Smythe said. “But he kept pushing and pushing and it finally did pay off. That was big. That was a nice win.”

In the night’s marquee bout, Warrior Run’s Zack LeBarron, ranked 13th in the state, beat Muncy’s 15th-ranked Angelo Barberio, 6-2, with a four-point move in the final 15 seconds. It helped bridge a win in the final five bouts for the Defenders.

LeBarron picked up a reversal in the second period to take a 2-0 lead before Barberio scored two escapes to tie the score. In a scramble off a Barberio shot in the third period, LeBarron (12-0) was able to come out on top and catch Barberio on his back for two near-fall points to get the win.

“Those two have hit many times and it’s always a tough match. It’s good to have some tough matches because you see what you need to work on,” Smythe said. “I think that was the case for us. I think we saw some cases where we didn’t handle things quite as well as we should have. But Zack’s a goer and we’re very happy with the way it turned out.”

106: Zack LeBarron, WR, dec. Angelo Barberio, 6-2.; 113: Eric Hunt, WR, maj. dec. Jacob Dgien, 16-2.; 120: Tyler Hornberger, WR, maj. dec. Abien Berry, 11-0.; 126: Brian LeBarron, WR, pinned Alex Krah, :55.; 132: Brandon Giannantonio, WR, dec. Andy Aguilar, 7-4.; 138: Cam Good, Mu, pinned Connor Pelletier, 5:48.; 145: Masen Wagner, WR, pinned Jaimee Moyle, 1:19.; 152: Elias George, WR, pinned Junior Ramos, 4:19.; 160: Nick Rohm, WR, pinned T.J. Moyle, 1:47.; 170: Jake Colburn, Mu, pinned Brett Buss, :47.; 182: Troy Hembury, Mu, tech. fall Garrett Moser, 16-1, 3:34.; 195: Skylar Ebner, Mu, tech. fall Hunter Stroup, 16-1, 4:00.; 220: Matt Kilgus, WR, dec. Nick Roberts, 3-1, sv.; 285: Austin Fiedler, WR, pinned Jeff White, :31.

*Match started at 126 pounds.

Takedowns: Muncy 11, Warrior Run 11.

Official: Jim Schriner.

Records: Warrior Run (4-2), Muncy (5-5).

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