NEWBERRY - The No. 4 Newberry Wolves fell behind early and could not pull off the comeback, dropping a 21-14 decision to the No. 11 Pittsburgh-Johnstown Mountain Cats in the second session of the Super Region I Duals presented by Sonic Drive-In of Newberry in Eleazer Arena on Friday night.
The Wolves fall to 12-2 on the season and saw a 42-match home winning streak snapped. Newberry's last loss at home came on December 15, 2007, to Ashland in that year's Newberry Duals. Newberry is 52-5 overall in Eleazer Arena since the program began in 2004-05.
Newberry fell behind early with a 9-4 loss by decision by No. 4 Jeff Vesta (Manhattan, Kan.) to Evan Link at 125 lbs. and Nick Lankford (Braselton, Ga.) losing a 9-3 decision to No. 8 Dave Fogle at 133 lbs. No. 5 B.J. Young (Jackson, N.J.) was aggressive in the first period of the 141 lbs. match with Dave Cawley, but one minor slip-up on a restart let to a quick reversal and pin at 1:26 by Cawley to put Newberry behind 12-0.
No. 8 Deral Brown (Elgin, S.C.) picked up Newberry's first win at 149 lbs. with a 10-2 major decision over Jack Bachman to narrow the deficit to 12-4, and No. 4 Taylor Knapp (Lawrenceville, Ga.) picked up another major decision for the Wolves at 157 lbs. with his 13-4 win over Joel Paolo to make it a 12-8 match.
UPJ pulled an upset at 165 lbs. when Keith Ryan took a 6-3 decision over No. 5 Blake Ridenour (Maryville, Tenn.) to push the Mountain Cats' lead to 15-8. Travis Sheehy (Suwanee, Ga.) powered to a 10-5 decision over Gary Lantz at 174 lbs. to bring Newberry back to within 15-11, but No. 8 Travis McKillop took UPJ's lead back to seven points at 18-11 with an 8-1 decision over Mitch Brown (Omaha, Neb.) at 184 lbs.
Joey Grisko (Gloucester Township, N.J.) kept Newberry in the match with a 12-8 decision over Nikos Garafola at 197 lbs., cutting the lead to 18-14. Unfortunately for the Wolves, heavyweight Matt Wade (Easton, Md.) came out on the wrong end of a 3-2 decision to Josh Duplin, seeing the home streak come to an end.
The Wolves will close out the Super Region I Duals presented by Sonic Drive-In of Newberry with matches against East Stroudsburg, No. 9 West Liberty and Ohio Valley.
