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Lewisburg puts together a complete performance to beat Montoursville

KAREN VIBERT-KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette Montoursville’s Lucas Sherwood, left, and Lewisburg’s Cole Temple wrestle during their 126-pound match on Thursday night at Montoursville.

As referee Mike Litzelman slapped the mat Thursday night, Lewisburg coach Jim Snyder jumped out of his seat and pumped his right fist. Winning wrestling matches in Montoursville in recent years has never been easy.

In his final year leading the Green Dragons, in his final dual meet against a Montoursville coaching staff which honored him prior to the match for his 24 years of coaching, Snyder and Lewisburg got one final win against the Warriors. The victory was finished off when Austin Ruhl finished a run of five consecutive falls for Lewisburg.

The Green Dragons’ 45-33 win over a short-handed Montoursville team missing two starters was one of the most complete performances of the last few seasons for Snyder. Four wrestlers with a combined career winning percentage under 45 percent joined returning state qualifier Justin Gessner with pins from 126 through 152 pounds as Lewisburg turned a 10-point deficit into a 20-point lead.

And although an anticipated matchup between Top 10-ranked wrestlers Dakotah Snyder and Cameron Wood never materialized at 220 pounds, Snyder still earned his 100th career victory with a fall in just 52 seconds. The eight bonus-point wins for the Green Dragons secure their spot in the District 4 Duals as they moved to 11-7 with only four matches left before next Saturday’s cutoff date.

“You know what’s happening here, there’s a lot of emotion going on here right now,” said Jim Snyder, who recorded win No. 314. “You can see it and feel it. That can be good and bad, but (Thursday) it was good.”

Montoursville saw the return of regional qualifier Gable Crebs last night – he needed just 29 seconds for a fall – but also wrestled without starters Cael Crebs and Caleb Moser. When Snyder saw the Warriors would be without two wrestlers who would likely have been favored over his wrestlers at 152 and 160 pounds, he thought his team had a chance to go get a win.

They proved him right as Kaiden Wagner earned a technical fall over Kayden Frame at 106 pounds in a matchup of state-ranked wrestlers. Then Cole Temple, Gessner, Gavin Sheriff, Logan Bartlett and Ruhl provided the fireworks to a lineup which had come up just short against its toughest competition of the season prior to last night. They helped Lewisburg post its first win over Montoursville since a 42-28 victory on Dec. 20, 2012.

“Teams that are above average or are good are ones we’ve been struggling with,” said Dakotah Snyder, who is the 16th Green Dragon to reach 100 wins. “But (Thursday) we came to wrestle. It’s a great team win. People are stepping up in key places. That’s a win we needed to have to qualify for the duals, and it was big for the team.”

Snyder, ranked ninth in the state at 220 pounds, was expecting a rematch with Wood, who is ranked sixth. The two met in the blood round of the regional tournament last year with Wood winning, 2-0, to qualify for the state tournament for the first time. Snyder was left one win from the state tournament for the second consecutive season.

But with the dual starting at 195 pounds and Montoursville wrestling short-handed, coach Matt Yonkin said he couldn’t afford to potentially lose a three-point decision at 220 and possibly give up bonus points at 285. So when Lewisburg sent Snyder to the mat, Yonkin countered with backup Lane Stutzman. Snyder earned a fall in 52 seconds.

Wood then bumped up to 285 pounds where he picked up a fall in 3:23.

“We would have loved to have had it. It wasn’t that we didn’t want to see it,” Yonkin said. “But early in the match we didn’t have a choice. We had to try and swap (falls) up there. We couldn’t take the risk of a decision and a fall up there and come out three points in the hole. It was the right team move. It’s what we had to do.”

Of course, Yonkin didn’t expect that the Green Dragons were going to fire off five consecutive falls after Montoursville’s Xan Oberheim and Broc Lutz gave the Warriors a 21-11 lead. But that’s exactly what Lewisburg did.

Temple got a half-nelson deep for a fall at 126 in a toss-up bout. After Gessner’s first-period fall, Gavin Sheriff, who recently lost his starting spot, picked up a fall with a headlock in the third period at 138. Bartlett rode the wave of energy to a third-period fall at 145, and Ruhl secured the victory with a fall in 1:53 at 152.

“Most of the toss-ups we won. And not only did we win, we got pins,” Jim Snyder said. “You always want to get that lead so that it’s shut down because you know what is coming at 70 (Montoursville state qualifier Dylan Bennett) and you know they’re probably favored at 82. So you gotta get that 13-point lead before that, and they went out and did it.”

“It’s a great confidence boost for those guys,” Dakotah Snyder said. “They’ve been wrestling well, but in some matches they need to step up, and they stepped up big. The next guy up wants to go out like a ball of fire and top the last guy.”

Despite the loss, Montoursville still clinched a spot in the District 4 Duals because this weekend’s Clearfield Duals was postponed until February because of the impending winter storm. Yonkin said he thought the additional time off until Thursday’s dual against Hughesville might be a benefit.”

“Hopefully it gives us some time to get in the room, regroup, and find some of the fight we had at the beginning of the year,” Yonkin said. “We’re going to have to make a push and it’s going to have to start this week.”

Lewisburg 45, Montoursville 33

195: No. 9 Gable Crebs, M, pinned Roman Aksenov, 0:29. 120: No. 9 Dakotah Snyder, L, pinned Lane Stutzman, 0:52. 285: No. 6 Cameron Wood, M, pinned Grant Adams, 3:23. 106: No. 20 Kaiden Wagner, L, tech. fall No. 21 Kayden Frame, 15-0, 4:14. 113: Xan Oberheim, M, dec. Thomas Lyons, 12-9. 120: Broc Lutz, M, pinned Ethan Daniels, 0:21. 126: Cole Temple, L, pinned Lucas Sherwood, 3:05. 132: Justin Gessner, L, pinned Dominica Dougherty, 1:25. 138: Gavin Sheriff, L, pinned Wyatt DeWald, 4:29. 145: Logan Bartlett, L, pinned Quentin Gonzalez, 5:10. 152: Austin Ruhl, L, pinned Eme4ry Balint, 1:53. 160: Broghan Persun, L, maj. dec. Jake Dinges, 8-0. 170: No. 6 Dylan Bennett, M, pinned Ronnie Lentz, 1:01. 182: Gavin Livermore, M, pinned Aaron Strosser, 1:40.

Takedowns: Lewisburg 17, Montoursville 9.

Junior high: Lewisburg, 68-25.

Official: Mike Litzelman.

Records: Lewisburg (11-7); Montoursville (8-4).

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