Wrestling: Hawkeyes handle Panthers
December 12, 2008
Cedar Falls, Ia. — On paper, Iowa’s 30-12 wrestling victory Thursday night over Northern Iowa was business as usual.
All five victories by No. 1 Iowa in contested matches, and a forfeit at 184, generated bonus points as well as the Hawkeyes’ 33rd consecutive victory over the Panthers.
Charlie Falck and Jay Borschel got pins, Brent Metcalf won by technical fall and Alex Tsirtsis and Dan Dennis won by major decision.
But the Hawkeyes won’t escape the wrath of coach Tom Brands and his staff.
“Did we lose four matches? That’s unacceptable,” Brands said. “It comes down to not technique, it comes down to not even skills because we are very skilled. Really, it comes down to toughness, and that’s probably the biggest ingredient we need to go to work on. It’s a concern and it’s happened more than once.”
Heavyweight Dan Erekson dropped the opening bout, a 6-2 decision by Christian Brantley, after Erekson’s second injury time out gave Brantley his choice of top or bottom in the second period. Brantley escaped to tie the match, starting a run of five unanswered points.
Matt Ballweg at 157 didn’t have enough to make Northern Iowa’s Tyson Reiner stop charging in an 8-2 loss.
“We’re not making the other guy blink,” Brands said. “You’ve got to make the other guy blink, and when he blinks, you hammer him and put him down. That’s what (Reiner) was doing to us. He made us blink and it turned the match around.”
Iowa’s Ryan Morningstar surprised No. 2 Moza Fay with a double-leg takedown with 13 seconds left in the first period, but Fay got an escape and what proved to be the winning takedown in the second period. Later he fought off Morningstar’s takedown bid in the final 25 seconds for the 3-2 win.
“I worked on that exact same position with my coach, and it turned out just the way I wanted it to,” Fay said, adding that Morningstar’s early shot surprised him.
The winning move came out of a scramble.
“Sometimes when somebody blows in on a really good shot, I can counter my way out of it,” Fay said. “I kind of found one of his weaknesses and I capitalized on it.”
After the heavyweight bout opened the evening in Northern Iowa’s favor, a frenzy of takedowns put a temporary stop to the one-sidedness.
Iowa held a 25-1 advantage in takedowns after five bouts.
Hwt-Christian Brantley (NI) beat Dan Erekson, 6-2; 125-Charlie Falck (I) pinned Caleb Flores, 4:07; 133-Dan Dennis (I) beat Josh Baldridge, 17-7; 141-Alex Tsirtsis (I) beat Trent Washington, 14-2; 149-Brent Metcalf (I) won by technical fall over Charlie Ettelson, 24-9, 6:25; 157-Tyson Reiner (NI) beat Matt Ballweg, 8-2; 165-Moza Fay (NI) beat Ryan Morningstar, 3-2; 174-Jay Borschel (I) pinned Jarion Beets, 4:10; 184-Phil Keddy (I) won by forfeit; 197-Andrew Anderson (NI) beat Rick Loera, 10-5.
