It's not easy being green.

But it's good to be king.

Solanco seized the crown from the head of defending L-L Section One monarch Warwick, Thursday night in Quarryville.

Whether the Golden Mules can maintain possession over the course of the next eight weeks is a story yet to be told, but Thursday's 45-27 conquest was an emphatic statement.

"To win (this match) is really nice," said coach John Little. "We're happy. We haven't beaten them in a number of years.

"A match like this, it would've been nice to have it at the end (of the season), or in the middle, at least. To have it your first dual meet is kind of rough."

Not as rough as the hosts treated their guests.

Solanco (1-0) won nine of the 13 contested bouts, with falls in six, to subdue the Warriors (0-1), who were without the services of upperweight Antonio Giorgio.

Giorgio injured an ankle in practice on Tuesday and will be sidelined indefinitely.

"We just have to wait and see," said Warriors coach Ned Bushong. "It takes time. If we don't take care of it, it will be chronic."

Giorgio's absence did not go unnoticed, but in truth the upperweights were not Warwick's problem Thursday.

"I think only five of the boys we had in the lineup tonight ever wrestled in a varsity dual meet before," said Bushong.

"We have a lot of young guys and they hit (Solanco's) studs," Bushong offered. "We had some great individual bouts. There were (also) some mismatches on both sides."

Warwick's six lowest weights go freshman, sophomore, sophomore, freshman, freshman, sophomore.

Only two of those sophomores, Cody Deim and Cody Schoenberger, had varsity experience.

Neither won Thursday as Solanco powered back from a 12-0 deficit — courtesy of falls by Warwick's Bryan McCall, over Brandon Leary, and John Devenney, over Steve Lam — to a 27-18 lead going into 140.

The Mules' Evan Wertz pinned Ethan Quinn at 103 and, after Solanco forfeited 112, Wink Charles pinned Deim at 119, Hans Herr pinned Steve Wooley at 125, and Dan Neff pinned Matt Mousetis at 130.

Those four contests took a shade over four minutes total mat time. McCall and Devenney were out a total of 4:44.

Jordan Hastings reversed Schoenberger with 42 seconds left to pull out a 6-4 win at 135 in the first bout to go the distance, and Joe Welk blew open a tight match at 140, taking Ian Stoeckl down and turning him in the last 20 seconds for a 9-3 win.

Brock Snider's 8-2 win over Dylan Stauffer at 145 made it 33-18 Mules before Conor Moran and Warwick's Jamie Mellinger traded falls at 152 and 160.

Moran clinched the victory for the Mules, pinning Mitch Mellinger, the younger brother of Jamie, who, in turn, pinned Cole Martin.

A takedown with .7 seconds left in the second period ultimately proved the difference in Zach Brubaker's 6-4 win over Josiah Deibler at 171.

Solanco's Joe Forren cradled Cody Stockdale at 189 to cap the first of what Little hopes will be many successful nights.

"All in all, we're pretty pleased," said Little. "Like I said, it's early in the season. There's a long way to go. Hopefully things are going that well at the end." blog comments powered by Disqus