Bob Gano had a pretty good idea what matches Biglerville needed to win against Boiling Springs on Thursday night in the second round of the District 3 Class AA Team Wrestling tournament held at Boiling Springs High School.

Heavyweight was one of them -- and it was a good thing too because time didn't go to waste with 285 set for the first bout of the night.

But Gano, whose team dropped an earlier decision to the Bubblers on Jan. 23, was given yet another reason why the Bubblers are still undefeated early in February.

They simple wrestle and grind with the best of Class AA.

Even though the Canners had a stretch of three straight wins through the lightweights, it was all Boiling Springs on this night and the Bubblers left with a solid 46-14 win.

"Flat out they're better than we are right there in some of those places," said Gano, whose team finished 17-5 and were beaten by the Bubblers 42-17 previously. "They are seniors that have been here. Hats off to them. They're solid. We wrestled hard, but they were a little better than we were at those places."

Gano specifically noted the middleweights, which Boiling Springs began to control at 130 when Bubblers star Joe Spisak recorded the night's first pin over Dustin Bower in 1:56.

Spisak, who entered with a 27-1 record, is one of the state's best wrestlers for a reason and he sure showed it Thursday night.

The lightweight moved early, yet only earned his first takedown with 1:16 left in the first period. Bower

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tried evasive action, but Spisak eventually put the Canner on the mat and flipped him over with four seconds left, earning the pin from the official.

The win buoyed the Bubblers into a gold rush of seven straight wins, including pins at 140, 160 and 171.

"They were pretty tough through that middle stretch," Gano said.

"We started kicking in a little bit and our stretch through the middle there. That's where we got them last time," Rice said. "I knew it was going to be tight like that again. You have to be patient. Good things will come."

Sam Rhoads, Logan Murphy and Jake Grove all secured six-point victories for Boiling Springs, jettisoning the Bubblers toward a semifinal entry in today's matches at Milton Hershey's Spartan Center.

Due to projections from the National Weather Service that show an onrush of snowfall, today's matches were moved up to a 4 p.m. start time at Milton Hershey.

And that was mildly concerning for Bubblers head coach Rodney Rice, who was slightly worried about how his wrestlers might respond less than 24 hours removed from a match.

"I still have mixed feelings about tomorrow," said Rice, whose team improved to 17-0. " ... I asked my guys and they're like 'Yeah, let's do it.' And so I still don't know. Is that good or bad? I'm not real sure."

Still, Rice was confident in his team's ability through a top-heavy Class AA field which includes No. 1 Schuylkill Valley and No. 2 Juniata.

"I think we're pretty solid all the way through our lineup," Rice said. "This is probably the most balanced team I've had here, to tell you the truth. It's just a little unfortunate that there are two other stud teams out there as well. I think the double-A is taking over the show this year at Milton Hershey."

Biglerville wasn't without good performances. The Canners had solid showings from Trevor Hernandez at 112, Nick Leiphart at 119, Laike Gardner at 125 and Danny Thomas at 189, his natural weight.

All four earned wins and Hernandez perhaps had the most impressive performance, shaking Mark Lentz consistently into the third period of his match en route to a 15-0 technical fall in 4:49.

Thomas was strong at 189 too, wrestling at his weight after trying to wrestle up the last time he faced the Bubblers. He controlled the entirety of his match in a 10-4 decision over Alex DeRoba.

"Down low, they're pretty tough," Rice said.
cmull@eveningsun.com