District 6 with strong showing in Pitt's win over Edinboro

District 6 was well-represented in Thursday night's showdown between Pitt and Edinboro, where the No. 14 Panthers beat the 10th-ranked Fighting Scots 25-13. (Here's Edinboro's version of it, if you'd rather read it).

A.J. Schopp

Richland grad John Rizzo is now 2-0 with two falls since transferring to Pitt from Temple and changing sports from football to wrestling. Rizzo appeared to be in trouble, as Edinboro's Walrren Bosch, who bumped up from 197 pounds, had the Panther on his back in the second period, but Rizzo reversed him an got a quick pin to end the dual.
Tyrone grad A.J. Schopp, who is ranked No. 1 at 133 pounds and was rocking this fantastic beard before shaving it prior to the season, beat Pitt's Nick Zanetta 10-0 in his season debut.
Schopp's former Tyrone teammate, Ronnie Garbinsky, didn't fare so well, as the Pitt wrestler lost to Edinboro's Austin Mathews - a Clarion transfer - 10-7 at 157 pounds.
Schopp's current teammate and former Bellefonte standout, Mitchell Port, had a very good night. The NCAA runner-up last year and currently ranked No. 2 at 141, Port pinned Travis Shaffer, a former PIAA state champion from Derry Area.
So the scorecard showed a 3-1 night for District 6 grads. Schopp and Port are already highly ranked, and it wouldn't surprise me to see Rizzo in the rankings shortly. It will be interesting to see how he can do this season. He was one of the nation's top-ranked heavyweights his senior year of high school but had his heart set on football. Now that he's back on the mats, he could quickly make a name for himself in the NCAA.