Saucon Valley High School's fast start swamps Northern Lehigh wrestlers

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

Travis Buddock steered the Saucon Valley High School wrestling team onto the right path Wednesday night.

He just wished he had done so sooner.

"I would have liked to have done it in the first period," said the Panther junior of his third-period pin of Marcus Hardiman at 160 pounds in the opening match of Saucon Valley's 47-22 thumping of visiting Northern Lehigh in the Colonial League dual meet opener for both.

Hardiman took defense to start the third period trailing 5-1 but just 23 seconds later was staring at the ceiling under Buddock's well-locked half-nelson as the home crowd roared and the Panthers rocked on the bench.

"I wasn't expecting to pin him that fast," Buddock said. "But he got his arm up, he opened up for me and I hit him with it. I didn't mind opening the meet, I like starting it off."

Buddock's fall launched the Panthers to an emphatic win over a traditional Colonial League power.

"They've beaten us in the past, and (Saucon) coach (Chad) Shirk wanted us to cream them tonight," Buddock said.

Mission accomplished behind five pins and an impressively physical display by the Panthers.

"This win means a lot to us," said Panther junior 120-pounder Brody Bisson, who posted one of the five Saucon pins, along with Buddock, junior Tyler Harka (106,l with a 21-second now-you-see-him-now-you-don't fall), senior Tyler Evans (182) and junior Ray O'Donnell (285). "The coaches really wanted us to win big."

Speaking of big, O'Donnell, the unbeaten Panther junior, improved to 6-0 by pumping up to 285 pounds from 195 and pinning Bulldog senior Brandon Loch in 95 seconds with an arm bar whose force rippled into the stands.

"That kid Ray beat is a good kid," said Shirk, accompanied by his new assistant, ex-Northampton coaching legend and Hellertown native Don Rohn, for the first time at a dual. "He'll do anything to help the team and he wanted to bump up to heavyweight; it will only help him. He weighed in at 195 1/2 pounds so he could to 285, with a little extra Gatorade."

The overall match might have been an audition to determine who's the primary challenger to three-time defending Colonial champ Pen Argyl, but Saucon doesn't wrestle the Green Knights in the regular season, a match that could come in the new Colonial League Duals in February (the teams could also meet at the District 11 team championships but that would not count in the league standings).

"Our team has put in a lot of effort and we're looking forward to doing our best this season," Bisson said.

Buddock said the Panthers' goals are lofty.

"We're looking for a Colonial League title and possibly even a state title," he said.

Shirk sees room for improvement.

"We made a lot of mistakes, things for us to work on," he said. "I have been pleased with our conditioning and our hand-fighting was good tonight."

The Bulldogs, who battled even when overmatched, are younger than usual but coming along. They got falls from Dylan Hoffman (152) and Kyle Greenawald (170).

"We're very young and this is an enjoyable year for me, all I do is teach," Northern Lehigh coach Todd Herzog said. "The kids wrestled hard tonight and I saw a lot of positive things. Our 220-pounder, Kyle Schomp (who won 11-3) has been on the mats for all of three weeks and he has some horsepower in his double (leg takedown)."

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/12/saucon_valley_high_schools_fas.html