Penn State Survives Scare, Downs Lehigh 23-19 in Front of Record Crowd
ALLENTOWN, PA. – Defending national champion and top-ranked Penn State won the final four bouts to survive a serious scare and defeat Lehigh 23-19 in front of a Lehigh home-record 9,896 fans in Allentown’s PPL Center. All five defending national champs won their bouts today with Darian Cruz, Zain Retherford, and Jason Nolf picking up bonus points.
With the win, Penn State improves to 4-0 on the season, while Lehigh drops to 4-1.
“It was a great match that came down to heavyweight and it was good for us to be pushed to the brink like that,” Penn State head coach Cael Sanderson said. “We want to win, obviously, but we’re not worried about a streak or anything like that. Lehigh is a very good team and they exposed some things that we need to go back and work on.”
Lehigh got off to a fast start, winning the first three bouts with two of those wins coming via falls at 125 and 133.
Darian Cruz, wrestling in front of his hometown crowd that was 9,896 fans strong, got things rolling for the Mountain Hawks with a fall over Devin Schnupp in just 1:13. Cruz came out aggressive and secured a takedown in the first minute before slapping a nearside cradle on Schnupp and driving him to his back for the fall.
“We were excited and ready to compete and have fun today,” Cruz said. “I haven’t really been pinning this season so I knew I was going to have to put some serious effort in to get a fall today and score those points for the team and get this crowd going. Wrestling in front of a crowd like this was amazing and I’m so thankful for the opportunity and for everyone that came out today.”
Scotty Parker followed Cruz’s fall with one of his own, pinning Dom Giannangeli in 4:12. The match was knotted at two midway through the second period when Parker snapped Giannangeli down and drove him to his back in a cement job that quickly led to the fall to put the Mountain Hawks up 12-0.
Luke Karam kept Lehigh’s hot streak going and knocked off Jared Cortez 2-0 at 141. The two periods didn’t see much action aside from a deep single leg from Cortez that Karam spent the final thirty seconds of the first period defending. Cortez, trailing 1-0, chose bottom in the third period and was barely able to get off his stomach as Karam put a brutal leg ride on the Nittany Lion junior.
The momentum quickly shifted in favor of the Nittany Lions, though, as Zain Retherford secured a fall over Cort Schuyler in the first period at 149. “I’ve wrestled with the team in a deficit before so this wasn’t anything new,” Retherford said. “I just had to go out and do my job and get the momentum back in our favor.”
Jason Nolf kept the momentum in Penn State’s favor with a 23-8 tech fall of Ian Brown that brought the team score to 15-11 in favor of Lehigh at the intermission. Nolf’s points mainly came on his feet as he scored eleven takedowns with a variety of attacks that kept Brown off balance from the opening whistle.
Vincenzo Joseph was not in the lineup for Penn State at 165, so freshman Bo Pipher got the nod against Lehigh’s Gordon Wolfe. In a wild and whacky match that was full of scrambles and reversals, Wolfe walked away with a 24-12 major decision that extended Lehigh’s lead to 19-11.
It was all Penn State from that point forward, though. Defending national champions Mark Hall and Bo Nickal both made second period takedowns stand up for 3-2 wins in the marquee matchups of the night. Kutler and Preisch were both able to get in deep leg attacks in the final thirty seconds of their respective bouts, but Hall and Nickal were up to the challenge and held on for a pair of close victories.
Anthony Cassar scored four takedowns en route to an 8-3 win over Lehigh’s Jake Jakobsen at 197 that gave the Lions their first lead of the afternoon, 20-19. Jakobsen had some success on top in the second period, but was unable to turn Cassar despite being close to doing so on a few different occasions.
In the final bout of the day, Penn State’s Nick Nevills used a third period rideout of Jordan Wood to secure a 2-0 win and seal the 23-19 dual meet win for his team. Wood was in deep on a single leg in the second period and was extremely close to securing the takedown, but Nevills was able to use the edge of the mat to his advantage and avoid giving up any points.
Next up for Penn State is a home match against Indiana on Dec. 17th, while Lehigh will make the trip south to Philadelphia to take on Penn next Sunday at noon.
125: #5 Darian Cruz LEH pinned Devin Schnupp PSU, WBF (1:13) 6-0 Lehigh
133: #3 Scotty Parker LEH pinned Dominic Giannangeli PSU, WBF (4:12) 12-0 Lehigh
141: Luke Karam LEH dec. Jered Cortez PSU, 2-0 15-0 Lehigh
149: #1 Zain Retherford PSU pinned Cortlandt Schuyler LEH, WBF (1:27) 15-6 Lehigh
157: #1 Jason Nolf PSU tech fall Ian Brown LEH, 23-8 (TF; 6:40) 15-11 Lehigh
165: #15 Gordon Wolf LEH maj. dec. Bo Pipher PSU, 24-12 19-11 Lehigh
174: #2 Mark Hall PSU dec. #5 Jordan Kutler LEH, 3-2 19-14 Lehigh
184: #1 Bo Nickal PSU dec. #4 Ryan Preisch LEH, 3-2 19-17 Lehigh
197: #11 Anthony Cassar PSU dec. Jake Jakobsen LEH, 8-3 20-19 PSU
285: #3 Nick Nevills PSU dec. #14 Jordan Wood LEH, 2-0 23-19 PSU
Attendance: 9,896
Records: Penn State 4-0, Lehigh 4-1
Photo courtesy of Lehigh University Athletics