After not competing last weekend the Mountain Hawks had to shake off some early rust as they dropped four of the first five bouts.
“Virginia Tech is a solid team with a lot of ranked wrestlers,” explained Lehigh head coach Pat Santoro. “They out fought us tonight. At times we stopped wrestling trying to coast to wins. It cost us one match and almost cost us another. We’ll need to do a better job tomorrow.
Santoro continued, “Brandon Hatchett went out and beat a ranked guy. David Craig, we knew it would be a great match, but he kind of shut down at the end and gave Spellman a chance to win, but our last few guys came up and stepped up like they always do.”
Hokie sophomore Jarrod Garnett opened things with a 7-1 win over sophomore John McDonald at 125. Senior Matt Fisk evened things at three with a 6-1 decision over Brock LiVorio at 133.
It looked like Fisk’s classmate and co-captain Seth Ciasulli was going to give Lehigh the lead after taking down Chris Diaz early in a battle of ranked wrestlers at 141, but late in the third period, with Ciasulli already warned for stalling Diaz scored a counter takedown in the final seconds to earn a 4-3 win.
Virginia Tech (14-5) took the next two bouts by decision as Brian Stephens downed Joey Napoli in a battle of freshmen at 149, while at 157 fifth-ranked Jesse Dong defeated sophomore Sean Bilodeau 10-6.
It was sophomore Brandon Hatchett who got Lehigh rolling after the intermission with a first period takedown, and second period takedown and two point near fall as he built a lead and held off Matt Epperly 8-4 at 165.
Caruso then brought the Mountain Hawks within a point at 12-11 with a dominant performance in a 21-6 technical fall win over Tyler Knapp. Caruso totaled eight takedowns including four in the first period as he improved to 4-0 in dual action this season.
“Alex made the most of his opportunity,” Santoro said. “He went out and scored a lot of points. He had a lot of takedowns. That’s what he has to do. That’s what he knows he needs to do and he did a great job tonight.”
Craig then gave Lehigh the lead with a win in his final Grace Hall match, but it was not easy. The Florida native scored the first takedown, but was reversed over a minute later, before escaping to lead 3-2 after one period. Leading 4-2 entering the third, Craig built a riding time advantage but also yielded an escape before Spellman forced overtime with a late takedown. The sudden victory period went right to the final seconds, before Craig scored the decisive takedown with five seconds remaining to earn the 7-5 win.
Lehigh kept things rolling at 197 as Kennedy earned a workmanlike 10-2 major decision over Chris Penny. With the six point lead, the Hokies forfeited to Zach Rey at heavyweight.
The Mountain Hawks will return to action on Saturday when they host Rutgers at Stabler Arena at 1 p.m. The match is still scheduled to go on as scheduled and tickets can be purchased at the Stabler Arena box office prior to the match.
Results:
125: #14 Jarrod Garnett (VT) dec. John McDonald, 7-1
133: #13 Matt Fisk (LU) dec. Brock LiVorio, 6-1
141: #10 Chris Diaz (VT) dec. #17 Seth Ciasulli, 4-3
149: Brian Stephens (VT) dec. Joey Napoli, 6-2
157: #5 Jesse Dong (VT) dec. Sean Bilodeau, 10-6
165: Brandon Hatchett (LU) dec. #20 Matt Epperly, 8-4
174: Alex Caruso (LU) tech fall Taylor Knapp, 21-6 (7:00)
184: #15 David Craig (LU) dec. #19 Tommy Spellman, 7-5 (SV)
197: #19 Joe Kennedy (LU) maj. dec. Chris Penny, 10-2
285: #5 Zach Rey (LU) wins by forfeit
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