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Wrestling: Warwick dominates short-handed Hempfield


LANDISVILLE — It should be said that the Hempfield Black Knights let up only once in their Lancaster-Lebanon League Section One wrestling match versus the Warwick Warriors.

In the end, however, Warwick dominated the short-handed Knights on the Thursday night mats, getting pins by Ian Butzer, Evan Clark, Ryan Stewart, and Devin Schnupp around four Hempfield forfeits to win going away by a 62-9 final.

Hempfield (2-5 overall, 0-2 Section One) won just two bouts, including Tyler Reber’s pin at the 170 weight class.

But it was Evan Brown’s ‘let-up’ that intermixed some early drama with a hint of comedy, falling behind Warwick’s Luke Hirtzel 3-2 in the third period on back-to-back cautions and finally, at coach Jude Bervinchak’s suggestion, conceding to a neutral start, before a thrilling takedown with 10 seconds left in the bout for a 4-3 decision at 145.

“Why give him another (caution) point and then have him earn the escape point?” Bervinchak explained post-match. “(Brown) got-in deep on a couple takedowns; it was just the logical thing to do, give (Hirtzel) one and then take him down for the win.

“Sometimes we’re over there yelling ‘get it going, you got to get it going,’ ” added the coach on the timeliness of the takedown. “We work on that all the time, not waiting for the last ten seconds to take a good shot. He didn’t get it going as early as I wanted but he did get the two, so that was a good match for us.”

At the time, Brown’s victory narrowed the deficit to 5-3 Warwick, the Warriors taking the lead in the opening bout with Ben Hershey’s tech fall at 138.

But Warwick really seized control in the upper classes when sophomores Clark and Stewart followed up a pair of forfeits by pulling decisive pins for a commanding 38-9 lead.

“They work hard and they go for falls,” Warwick coach Ned Bushong said of the quick pins. “At that weight, you get somebody off balance, they go to their back. Big guys don’t come off their back very often.”

The potentiality of a bout between Hempfield standout Brandon Loperfido and Schnupp at 120 never materialized with Loperfido nursing an injury sustained following his title in the Carlisle Tournament last weekend.

Instead, Schnupp pinned Reuben Sanchez in a mere 32 seconds, before a pair of close decisions in Warwick’s favor closed out the match.

“(Schnupp) works hard and we try to get him some good competition,” Bushong said. “(Loperfido) is who we were expecting. We wanted to have our ability to put (Schnupp) on their best wrestler.”

“It’s a little disappointing that we couldn’t field our best team,” Bervinchak said. “I’m pleased with where we are but I’m not pleased with the score tonight. We’ll get there, but you’re not going to beat the better teams giving 18 points up.”

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Warwick 62, Hempfield 09
at Hempfield


138 — Ben Hershey (WW) t.f. Austin Kline, 19-3

145 — Evan Brown (HM) d. Luke Hirtzel, 4-3

152 — Logan Boring (WW) d. Christian Carr 5-2

160 — Ian Butzer (WW) p. Logan Stief, 4:35

170 — Tyler Reber (HM) p. Steven Seepaul, 2:43

182 — Eric Garner (WW), forfeit

195 — Josh Miller (WW), forfeit

220 — Evan Clark (WW) p. Donal Strausbaugh, 2:48

285 — Ryan Stewart (WW) p. Zach Thomas, 0:42

106 — Mateo Chacon (WW), forfeit

113 — Connor Esbenshade (WW), forfeit

120 — Devin Schnupp (WW) p. Reuben Sanchez, 0:32

126 — Trevis Esbenshade (WW) d. Christopher Detweiler, 4-3

132 — Brock Lieberman (WW) d. Luke Granbois, 3-1