Shorthanded Falcons Gain Split on Wrestling's Opening Night

Unlike basketball, where many teams like to schedule cupcakes in the opening weeks of the season, many high school wrestling coaches opt to schedule tough opponents to start the season as a way to gage their talent.

Hartland learned Wednesday at that the Eagles might be better than advertised.

Despite bringing back just five starters from last year's Final Four squad, Hartland coach Todd Cheney had his team answer many questions in gaining a pair of non-league wins over teams expected to be in the top tier of their respective conferences.

The Eagles (2-0) opened the night with an impressive 52-19 trouncing of New Baltimore Anchor Bay, and were equally impressive in downing Rochester, 53-17.

Rochester also defeated Port Huron Northern 40-25 in its first match, while Port Huron Northern also got the best of Anchor Bay with a 54-22 decision.

"We came in with a lot of unanswered question marks tonight," admitted Cheney, whose team has reached at least the Division 1 quarterfinals every season dating back to 2002 and finished as the state runner-up four times in that span. "We (graduated) some tough kids. We are young. We wrestled five freshman tonight."

One could not tell.

Against Rochester in the nightcap, Hartland came up with a couple of upsets and took advantage of the host Falcons, who were missing three key starters.

The biggest upset came from freshman prospect Austin Eicher, who stunned Rochester's Josh Wood with a pin in 5:42 at 112. Wood was the state runner-up at 103 last season.

"That was a nice surprise. I thought our freshman did a nice job and (Eicher's) win was nice to see. He beat a very good wrestler," praised Cheney.

Rochester (1-1) had to shuffle around most of its lineup, with state qualifier Diego Camp, Trevor Elliott and Jack Glancy out of the lineup with injuries. The Falcons were able to get by Port Huron Northern without a full roster, but fell behind Hartland in a flash and could never recover.

"We were missing three starters. I think if we had everybody here, it might have been different," offered Rochester coach Frank Lafferty. "I am not saying that we would have won. But it would have been closer. I had to bump up a bunch of kids and with three guys out, I had to wrestle a lot of sophomores and freshmen."

Justin Charneski (171) won with a major decision and Matt Ostermiller followed with a pin as Hartland led 10-0 early on against Rochester. Nick Long (215) followed with a pin to bump up the lead to 16-0.

Rochester responded when Marcel Johnson (285) gained a pin and Justin Kim (103) followed with a major decision to climb back to within 16-10.

That was as close as Rochester would get.

Eicher added six more points with his upset of Wood, which set off a 34-3 run to put the match out of reach.

Brian Tilley (135), Mitch Thomas (140) and Chase Snider (145) all won by pin, John Julien added a victory by technical fall and Keith Boldt (119) and Justin Rollins (130) both added wins by major decision for Hartland.

Snider recorded his 149^th and 150^th career wins on the night.

"It doesn't get any easier for us. We head to Lake Orion Saturday for a tournament and there will be a lot of good teams there," said Cheney. "We beat some good teams here tonight. I know they were (both) missing some guys. But this is a good way to start the season. I didn't know what to expect."

Rochester's Kaelen Richards (125, decision) and Cody Devoe (160, major decision) accounted for the Falcons' other points.

"When we have everybody healthy, we'll be tough," said Lafferty. "It's a long season. This loss means nothing right now."

Rochester overcomes Port Huron Northern

Rochester had to go into its depth chart to replace three injured starters and the Falcons responded with a 40-25 victory over Port Huron Northern.

The Falcons rallied back from a 17-11 deficit after five matches to cool down the Huskies.

Devoe (160), Kim (103) and Richards (130) all recorded pins for Rochester, while Matt Waszkiewicz (171), Wood (119), Jose Ryan (140) and Derrick Steinard (152) all won by decision for the Falcons.

Nate Brinker (189) and David McCormick (135) both won by decision, Richard Hill (145) and Parker Willard (125) gained major decisions, Austin Pickering (215) posted a technical fall and both Alex Gaglio (285) and Scott Stokin (112) recorded pins for Port Huron Northern.

ROCHESTER 40, PORT HURON NORTHERN 25

160: Cody Devoe (R) p. John Jakaw 1:06.

171: Matt Waszkiewicz (R) tech. fall Gabe Nowaczink 17-1.

189: Nate Brinker (PHN) d. Jamison Joyce 6-2.

215: Austin Pickering (PHN) tech. fall Marcel Johnson 17-2.

285: Alex Gaglio (PHN) d. Fabion Villolobos 1:36.

103: Justin Kim (R) p. Steffan Cleaver 2:27

112: Scott Stokin (PHN) p. Todd Puchovan 3:13.

119: Josh Wood (R) d. Kevin Nguyen NA.

125: Kaelen Richards (R)  p. Kody Bats 0:46.

130: Parker Willard (PHN) d. Joey Gunther 14-4

135: David McCormick (PHN) d. Tyler Dukart 10-3

140: Jose Ryan (R) Matt Allen 9-1.

145: Richard Hill (PHN) a. Aaron Morgan 15-7.

152: Derrick Steinard (R) Mitch Schrader 8-4.

HARTLAND 53, ROCHESTER 17

171: Justin Charneski (H) maj. dec. Matt Waszkiewicz 10-1.

189: Matt Ostermiller (H) p. David French 1:50.

215: Nick Long (H) p. Jamison Joyce NTA.

285: Marcel Johnson (R) p. Brian Braun 2:20.

103: Justin Kim (R) maj. dec. Nate Hughes 12-3.

112: Austin Eicher (H) p. Josh Wood 5:42.

119: Keith Boldt (H) maj. dec. Todd Puchavan 13-2.

125: Kaelen Richards (R)  d. Ros Kantola 4-1.

130: Justin Rollins (H) maj. dec. Joey Gunther 13-4.

135: Brian Tilley (H) p. Tyler Dukart 1:02.

140: Mitch Thomas (H) p. Ryan Jose 0:34.

145: Chase Snider (H) p. Aaron Morgan NTA.

152: John Julien (H) tech. fall Derrick Steinard 15-0.

160: Cody Devoe maj. dec. Todd Puchava d. Nate Smith 14-6.