WRESTLING: Spring-Ford wins SEPA title

By Dennis Weller
Special to The Mercury

GRATERFORD — Spring-Ford accomplished something on Saturday that it hadn’t quite been able to do the last two years when it took home the championship trophy of the Southeastern PA Wrestling Classic at Perkiomen Valley High School. That came despite putting a young team out on the mat that included only two seniors and several members who were just coming off a long football season.

Senior 126-pounder Sean Hennessey led the way for the Rams, winning his third straight Classic gold medal, and three of his teammates placed second as Spring-Ford – the runner-up the last two years – racked up 213.5 points and finished 40 points ahead of North Penn in the 16-team field.

Perkiomen Valley junior Nick Giangiulio won the 152-pound title and did not allow a single point the entire tournament while winning three decisions, the last two by 1-0 scores. The Vikings wound up ninth in the team standings.

(For the complete article, click here...)

BOYS BASKETBALL: Trojans’ defense chills CBW

Pottstown's Miles Elliott (12) drives to the basket against Central Bucks West during the PAC-10/Suburban One Challenge Friday at Pottstown High School. (Photo/Tom Kelly III)

By Dennis Weller
Special to The Mercury

POTTSTOWN — Running off the first 10 points of the game is a pretty good way to knock out some of those opening night jitters, which is what Pottstown did in Friday night’s PAC-10/Suburban One Challenge at Strom Gymnasium.
The Trojans did hit a few rough spots after that, which is certainly not unusual for thefirst game of the season, but allowed only four points in the entire first half and led by double digits throughout the second half in a 46-31 win over Central Bucks West in Cal Benfield’s first game as head coach.

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GIRLS BASKETBALL: Boyertown 38, Lower Dauphin 34

Boyertown's Dee Terry on the season-opening win.

By Darryl Grumling
dgrumling@pottsmerc.com

LAURELDALE — When the Boyertown girls basketball team found itself down nine points less than 10 minutes into Friday’s season opener, you couldn’t blame Bears coach Jason Bieber for wondering if this year’s edition of the Bears was headed for an inauspicious debut.

Senior Kaitlyn Eisenhard, on the other hand, wasn’t quite ready to push the panic button.

“Since my freshman year, we’ve been a comeback team,” Eisenhard said. “We’re used to being down, but we’ll never give up. That’s something Boyertown basketball won’t do.”

And the Bears didn’t do it against Lower Dauphin in the first round of the Muhlenberg Tip Off Tournament, using a big second-half effort to come away with a 38-34 victory.

Eisenhard, a 6-foot-1 center, had team-highs of 10 points and seven rebounds — along the way moving to within 24 points of 1,000 for her career — as the Bears advanced to today’s 3:30 p.m. championship against Muhlenberg, a 53-32 winner over Kutztown.

(For the complete story, click here...)

BOYS BASKETBALL: Spring-Ford rallies past CB South in opener

Mercury Photo/John Strickler Spring-Ford's Drew Kakareka (12) drives in for a lay-up against Central Bucks South in the PAC-10/Suburban One Challenge Friday night at Pottstown High School. (Photo/Tom Kelly III)

By Jeff Stover
jstover@pottsmerc.com

POTTSTOWN — There are several rough spots in its game Spring-Ford needs to polish up.
Comeback wins? Well, the Rams’ progression in that aspect appears to be further along.
Spring-Ford opened its season Friday in the PAC-10/Suburban One Challenge, facing off against Central Bucks South at Pottstown High’s Strom Gymnasium. And while the going got tough at times, the locals came up big at crunch time, rolling up a 73-67 victory over the Titans.

(For complete story, click here ... )

FRIDAY NIGHT WRESTLING RECAP

By Mercury Staff
sports@pottsmerc.com

GRATERFORD — It may not have been quite the strongest start Spring-Ford’s Tim Seislove and Perkiomen Valley’s Tim Walsh had hoped for ... but it wasn’t too bad.
Seislove watched eight of his Rams and Walsh watched three of his Vikings win at least one bout each Friday night during the opening round of the Southeast Wrestling Classic at Perkiomen Valley High School. All 11 move into this morning’s semifinals.
Spring-Ford got it rolling with Ryan Hayes’ pin at 113 pounds. Veteran Sean Hennessey eased to a technical fall at 126; Frank Krause posted a major decision at 145; John Cooper with added a decision at 160; and Tyler McGuigan followed with a first-period pin at 170. The Rams then closed with wins in the three final weight classes when Nick Perri pinned at 195, Mason Romano recorded a decision at 220, and Zach Dorsey capped it off with an overtime win at 285.
The host Vikings semifinalists will be Brian Marshall, who breezed to a 20-8 major at 106; Nick Giangiulio, who had a 6-0 shutout at 152; and Luke DiElsi, who needed just 78 seconds to get his pin at 285.
Today’s action resumes at 9 a.m. at Perkiomen Valley.

Walking Into a Winter Wonderland

We have spent this fall giving you the best high school football coverage around here at Mercury Sports Live. And you have hopefully found our new site to be the perfect source for all your sports needs.

Now that winter is upon us, it's time to expand.

We hope to make Mercury Sports Live your one-stop shop all season long for coverage of every winter sport. Whether it's Don Seeley's wrestling insights, a trip onto the basketball court with Jeff Stover and Darryl Grumling, or jumping into the swimming pool with Rosemarie Ross', you'll find it all here at MSL.

On the right and left side of thispage, you'll see "Labels" for all the Winter Sports, as well as your favorite schools and our sports staffers. By clicking any of those labels, you'll see the most recent posts for that sport, that school or by that specific writer.

We also plan to provide exclusive content each weekday (and maybe more) that you won't find on PottsMerc.com or in the print edition.

Do you have an idea for what you might want to see on MSL? Let us know by commenting here, or mention us on Twitter @PottsMercSports.

Buckle up, because the winter sports season kicks off tonight, and it should be a heck of a ride.

PRESEASON WRESTLING RANKINGS

By Don Seeley

Be kind and gentle here... not exactly sure where everyone is going to be; taking a lot from what I've heard and been told the past month or so; and, bottom line, just trying to GET SOME NAMES out there for the beginning of another wrestling season ... Plus it's raining today - so no golf. ... Also, I'll bet my house - and any flower-power t-shirts from the 60s I haven't thrown out yet - this so-called power projection WILL NOT be the same after the weekend.

Top Five Teams

1. Owen J. Roberts ... can't disagree with the state gurus who have OJR ranked No. 1

2. Boyertown ... will get better as season goes along

3. Spring-Ford ... has a few holes, but could be No. 2 if Bears slip

4. Upper Perkiomen ... who steps up in support of the Steffeninos, Fellman and McStravick?

5. Methacton ... a lot of off-season work may lead to dividends for Maida and program

106

1. Aston White, OJR ... good lead-off man for OJR, and being a senior at 106 helps a lot

2. Dustin Steffenino, UP ... deal with two twin brothers all day and night and you get better

3. Jimmy Frank, SF ... hearing a lot of good things about Mr. Frank

113

1. Derek Gulotta, OJR ... if he stays healthy, he'll be a state medalist AGAIN

2. Eric Miller, UP ... got lost in the lightweight shuffle last year - he won't be this year

3. Mason Pennypacker, Pt ... one of Pottstown's solid group of freshmen

120

1. Dante Steffenino, UP ... has a little revenge in his blood this season

3. Dylan Wertz, Bt ... has gotten bigger and stronger; like his aggressive nature

3. Bubba Gephart, Pt ... one of Pottstown's solid group of freshmen

126

1. Sean Hennessey, SF ... determined to make up for some lost postseason time (Part One)

2. Eddie Kriczky, Bt ... determined to make up for some lost postseason time  (Part Two)

3. Zach Coffey, WM ... been to national preps, warrants recognition

132 (very good weight class)

1. Dylan Steffenino, UP ... will get back to states and should medal

2. Colby Frank, OJR ... not exactly sure where Colby will be early on

3. Joe Staley, Meth ... tough weight class to start here, but definitely belongs

3. Bryant Wise, PT ... maybe the best of Pottstown's solid group of freshmen 

138 (very good weight class)

1. Wolfgang McStravick, UP ... the Wolf-man medals all the way through March

2. Chad Saunders, Hill ... beat national Greco-Roman champion last weekend

3. Nico Demetrio, Pottsgrove ... put in a lot of summer work; has that Demetrio Drive, too

145

1. Kyle Fellman, UP ... a lot of experience; should take next step this year

2. Frank Krause, SF ... hearing a lot of good things about this young fella

3. Peter Fratantoni, OJR ... one very unsung (but not unappreciated) "filler" for OJR last two years

152

1. Adam Moser, OJR ... when aggressive and on the move, better than most think

2. Nick Giangiulio, PV ... tough, tough, tough - a move here or there, would've been at states last year

3. Jasheel Brown, Pt ... Trojan who showed considerable promise in AA postseason last year

160

1. Kyle Shronk, OJR ... if healthy and driven, could be in Hershey come March

2. Paul Russo, Meth ... no reason not to like this kid

3. Darien Hain, Pt ... another Trojan who showed considerable promise in AA postseason last year

170

1. Gray Garber, Bt ... tough as nails

2. Tyler McGuigan, SF ... our area's postseason surprise of the 2012 postseason

3. Tyler Rogers, OJR ... if healthy will contribute mightily for OJR

182

1. Gordon Bolig, OJR ... state qualifier last year, potential state medalist this year

2. Cody Richmond, Bt ... could be one of our area's surprise upperweights

3. Jordan Valenteen, PX ... staying healthy and driven a key

195

1. Mike Baccaro, Meth ... early season performance should dictate how far he goes

2. Jordan Wertz, Bt ... nice postseason surprise last year - now bigger

3. John Hill, Hill ... impressive debut last weekend

220 (how about a very, very, very good weight class)

1. Jordan Wood, Bt ... I hear one of the best freshmen to come along in a looooooong time

2. Pat Finn, Pg ... may have been state qualifier last year if not for injury after winning sectional

3. Luke DiElsi, PV ... just missed states last year, should be there this time around

285 (Golobokov would do well in District 1)

1. Brad Trego, OJR ... talk about guts

2. Tracey Green, Meth ... we think it's his "break-out" year

3. Kostya Golobokov, Hill ... could be a force by state preps