Wednesday night recap 1/18/12

There was only one local match on Wednesday: Blairsville at Ligonier Valley. My wife was shooting photos for the Latrobe Bulletin. Being the dutiful husband that I am, I of course tagged along. Although I wasn't expecting it to be a close dual, I hadn't seen either team outside of tournaments, so it was a good opportunity.

Blairsville 52, Ligonier Valley 27

113-Ian South, B, forfeit.
120-Pete Hipple, B, pinned Mitchell Brown, 4:16.
126-Dan Croyle, LV, pinned Channing Cavender, 4:17.
132-Tyler Smith, LV, pinned Nate Lowery, 1:27.
138-Noah Tarr, B, maj. dec. Jonathan Davis, 11-2.
145-Derek Croyle, LV, pinned Luke Mowery, 3:24.
152-Andrew Doak, B, pinned Dylan Youngblood, 4:16.
160-Bobby Thompson, B, forfeit.
170-Austin Witchen, B, pinned Jeremy Withrow, 2:43.
182-Scott Thompson, B, forfeit.
195-Alex Tripodis, B, pinned Dakota Peters, 1:06.
220-Brandon Leydon, LV, dec. Luke White, 9-5.
285-Ryan Maskrey, B, pinned Mark Ebberts, 1:59.
106-Justin Patrick, LV, pinned Logan Henry, 1:05.

Analysis: This was actually a bit closer than I would have guessed. Blairsville has a solid wrestler at nearly every weight, with Noah Tarr and Andrew Doak as standouts. Throw in the fact that Ligonier Valley is still without Josh Patrick, and I though this had the potential to get ugly. But, counting only the contested matches, the score was 34-27.
I was interested in seeing Dan Croyle, as he's posted some impressive wins this season. He was locked in a close match Channing Cavender before coming up with a reversal and fall in the third period.
Tarr was physically dominant in his match but couldn't turn Jonathan Davis.
I noticed a bit of a mean streak running through the Bobcats team, especially early on. That's more of a compliment than a criticism. They weren't dirty or doing anything illegal, just very physical within the rules. Definitely a good trait for a wrestling team.
Both Bobby and Scott Thompson, who I believe are two of Blairsville's better wrestlers, got forfeits, so I didn't get any insight there.
I was able to chat with Josh Patrick during the match. He said his injured elbow is getting better and he hopes to get cleared to return on Feb. 3. He also said that he plans to drop to 113 for the postseason and that keeping his weight down hasn't been much of a problem despite being unable to wrestle for the past month.