HS Wrestling: North Schuylkill holds off Blue Mountain
North Schuylkill's Alex Deritis, top, works for back points during his 114-pound bout against Blue Mountain's Keenan Hall on Wednesday night. Deritis won by pin. (Photo by Bob Lipsky)
ORWIGSBURG — Cadyn McGraw, Easton Edwards and Stanley Padakowski pulled out decisions.
Gaige Mentusky, Alex Deritis, Nate Sterner and Sander Stokes produced bonus points.
Kaden Tavares, Jaden Meyer, Brody Souchak and Bryce Kile combined to save nine team points.
All of that added up to North Schuylkill’s biggest victory of the season, a 30-27 decision over Blue Mountain on Wednesday night in a Schuylkill League Division I first-place showdown in the Eagles’ home gym.
“Any time you can come to Blue Mountain and steal one … I’ll say steal one because that’s a great-coached team,” North Schuylkill coach Corey Fetterolf said. “Coach (Alex) Gosch, we go back and forth all year long. It means a lot to win down here.”
With the win, the Spartans (9-2, 3-0 D-I) took command of the division race and now hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over Blue Mountain (11-6, 2-1). North Schuylkill can clinch its first Division I championship since the 2021-22 season when the Spartans host Pottsville on Jan. 22.
“Our goals (posted) on the (practice room) wall, one of the big ones is always to win Schuylkill League Division I,” Fetterolf said. “We control our own destiny now. … We like our chances going forward.”
North Schuylkill won seven weights, including 3-of-4 toss-up bouts, and got pinned just once all night. That combination went a long way toward deciding the dual meet.
Blue Mountain got off to a good start as Preston Whalen (160) scored a pair of takedowns in a 6-2 win over Tavares and Hunter Blankenhorn (172) used two sets of back points to defeat Meyer 11-5.
Bradley Renninger (189) followed with a 15-0 technical fall, but Souchak fought off his back to avoid the pin and save one team point. Bryce Bodenberg (139) had two takedowns and a three-point near fall, but Kile kept him to a 13-2 major decision. That saved North Schuylkill two team points.
Blue Mountain expected some falls here but didn’t get any.
“That’s the difference in the match, and we’ve been preaching that in the (practice) room the last couple weeks because every time we lose, we get pinned,” Fetterolf said. “Tonight, they fought, saved team points … they don’t realize a loss is a good loss sometimes.”
Blue Mountain led 11-0 after three bouts, but North Schuylkill swept the next six to build a 25-11 advantage.
Included in the run were three toss-up wins. McGraw (215) made a second-period reversal stand up in a 2-0 decision over David Renninger. Edwards (121) barely avoided giving up a takedown at the final buzzer to hold off Cooper Leibold 3-2. Padakowski (127) scored 10 points in the third period — including a pair of four-point near falls — to outslug Troy Mady 14-9.
Brian Brobst (133) scored a fall for Blue Mountain, but the Eagles needed more bonus points to pull out the victory. That was especially the case because the Eagles’ 285-pounder, Vaughn Helverson, was held out with an injury. Helverson weighed in, but he didn’t compete.
“We knew going into it without our heavyweight that we were going to have to get some points in those toss-up matches, and a lot of them didn’t go our way,” Blue Mountain coach Alex Gosch said. “Our guys that we knew we needed pins from we didn’t get those bonus points either. So whenever you give up the toss-up matches and don’t get the bonus points that you expect, that’s the outcome of the match.”
Stokes picked up the six points at 285 for the Spartans, and Mentusky (107) continued the decisive run with an 11-0 major decision over Tristan Lazor. Mentusky scored a pair of takedowns and a three-point near fall with an armbar in the major decision. Deritis (114) followed by armbarring Keenan Hall for a pin in 1:31 — a big six-pointer.
