Expand<\/a><\/p>\nSCRANTON \u2014 Last season, Wallenpaupack wrestling made school history, capturing the program\u2019s first Lackawanna League Division I and District 2 Class 3A duals titles.<\/p>\n
Now, the Buckhorns have their sights on repeating.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a team, we want to win districts again, and what coach likes to say is we want to stay at the top of the mountain, be better than every other team, be the team everyone wants to beat,\u201d Wallenpaupack\u2019s 189-pounder Jake Rafferty said.<\/p>\n
With three bouts left and the Buckhorns leading by four, Rafferty faced an opportunity to help secure the first step toward the team\u2019s goals. It was only his eighth varsity match, after missing his freshman campaign because of a shoulder injury he suffered during football season.<\/p>\n
He found himself trailing by two points to West Scranton\u2019s Jonyae Sostre at the end of the first period, but the Buckhorns sophomore handled the deficit like a veteran, scoring the next 12 points to secure a major decision. Then, Tyler Gallo ended it with a pin, as Wallenpaupack defeated West Scranton, 43-23, in the Lackawanna League Division I opener for both teams at West Scranton High School.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a really strong kid,\u201d Rafferty said. \u201cComing out, I was thinking I\u2019m just going to work my stuff, and right when I came in, he shot right off the whistle and kind of ruined my whole gameplan. So, I just had to go from there, and I just started working a little more technical and it was a long-fought match, but I came out on top.\u201d<\/p>\n
Division I is always a gauntlet, and Wednesday night\u2019s match was no different, as the lead changed six times after seven bouts. With West Scranton leading, 19-17, Nasir Burns looked to extend the lead with an early takedown of Sawyer Jones in the 152-pound match. However, Jones rallied with an escape, a takedown and four back points to take a five-point lead at the end of the first period. Then, Jones chose down, but Burns conceded a point to put them in neutral. Burns then secured a takedown to cut the deficit to 9-6. However, that was the last point he scored, as Jones scored 14 straight to secure the 23-6 technical fall and give the Buckhorns a 22-19 lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever I start a match, I\u2019m not hot,\u201d Jones said. \u201cAfter the first period or so, I\u2019m into it, and when I get on top, I like to turn. That\u2019s how I get my points, I turn a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wallenpaupack junior is 8-0 with four pins, two tech. falls and two decisions, after going 1-4 last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cSawyer Jones, we went out to Wyalusing and he beat the (Class 3A West Regional sixth-placer) from Bellefonte,\u201d Wallenpaupack coach Steve Krushnowski said. \u201cHe is laser focused. Here\u2019s a kid who was a spot starter for us last year, and he is on fire. He wants it, he\u2019s hungry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tristan Braxton extended the lead to 27-19 with a 15-0 tech. fall over Evan Walsh at 160, but Tommy Schechterly cut the deficit to 27-23 with a 14-1 major decision over Gabe Caufield in a battle of state-ranked wrestlers.<\/p>\n
With three bouts left, Sostre had an opportunity to give West Scranton the lead back. After Rafferty\u2019s opening takedown, Sostre hit a reversal and collected three back points as he fought for the pin at the end of the period. However, Rafferty threw the Invaders sophomore right to his back for a seven-point move. In the third period, Rafferty added a reversal and three back points. Sostre got a reversal seconds before the end of the third, as Rafferty secured a 15-7 major decision, gave the Buckhorns a 31-23 lead with two bouts left and pushed his record to 7-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cRafferty was one of our best guys coming up from junior varsity last year,\u201d Krushnowski said of the Wallenpaupack sophomore. \u201cHe got a shoulder injury in football, so we lost him for the year. He wrestled pretty good tonight, but as he goes, you\u2019ll see he\u2019s going to get a hell of a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gallo (215) pinned Kenneth Harris to seal the match, and Vincent Panzarella pinned Max Turi at 285 for the final margin.<\/p>\n
Greg Nalesnik (107) and Ayden Blaut (127) added pins for Wallenpaupack (1-0), and Kyle Scartelli (139) tacked on a tech. fall.<\/p>\n
\u201c(They wrestled) fantastic. It\u2019s early, and we have a couple guys out of the lineup, so it was going to be iffy, and we\u2019ve got a lot of guys with big expectations,\u201d Krushnowski said. \u201cWe could have bumped and done some things, but we wanted our guys to see what we had, and the kids really came out and wrestled hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Buckhorns\u2019 next league match is Jan. 2 when they host Delaware Valley, as they continue their chase for a second straight Division I title.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been tough. You\u2019re replacing really good leaders in (Xaiden) Schock, (Conan) Kier and (Nick) Skokos, and you\u2019re asking other guys to step up,\u201d Krushnowski said. \u201cGood leadership is tough, but these guys have stepped up and they\u2019re learning. They\u2019re learning to lead. Our best guys all have regional aspirations and state aspirations, so learning how to lead and lead the right way is tough, but they\u2019re coming along.\u201d<\/p>\n
West Scranton\u2019s Connor Lagier won the marquee match of the night in a back-and-forth bout with Gio Lomonaco at 133. In a battle of All-Region wrestlers, Lagier, a two-time state qualifier, secured the first takedown for a three-point lead. Lomonaco answered with an escape and takedown for a one-point lead. Lagier then hit a reversal and Lomonaco answered with an escape as the first period ended tied at 5. After Lagier secured two points in the second period, Lomonaco took an 8-7 lead with a takedown before the buzzer. Lomonaco chose down to start the third and escaped for a 9-7 lead, but Lagier clinched the win with a takedown.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe sat out last week because he was sick for (the) Cumberland Valley (tournament), so he was coming back,\u201d West Scranton coach Jim Morgan said. \u201cHe weighed in light today, and Lomonaco\u2019s very good. We knew it was going to be a tight match like that, but for Connor, especially to score takedowns to win that match, I know Connor beat him a couple times last year, but it was mainly because of mat wrestling. But for him to go out there and beat Lomonaco with some takedowns is very encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jullian Lagier (114) had a pin for West Scranton (0-1), while\u00a0Santino Aniska (121) and Matthew McKeefery (145) each had a tech. fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we wrestled well,\u201d said Morgan, who took over as West Scranton\u2019s coach in November. \u201cWe really competed. We do have a lot of younger guys in there. We\u2019re in good matches, we do good things. They have experienced guys who are a little bit older, and they kind of took over, but as long as we build on that I think we\u2019ll be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
107: Greg Nalesnik (WAL) pinned Vito Bertocki, 1:02; 114: Jullian Lagier (WS) pinned Dominick Tufaro, 1:21; 121: Santino Aniska (WS) tech. fall Brodey Resino, 17-2; 127: Ayden Blaut (WAL) pinned Anthony Olavarria, 1:55; 133: Connor Lagier (WS) over Giovanni Lomonaco, 10-9; 139: Kyle Scartelli (WAL) tech. fall Reggie Rollins, 17-1; 145: Matthew McKeefery (WS) tech. fall Jacob Yancewicz, 21-6; 152: Sawyer Jones (WAL) tech. fall Nasir Burns, 23-6; 160: Tristan Braxton (WAL) tech. fall Evan Walsh, 15-0; 172: Tommy Schechterly (WS) maj. dec. Gabriel Caufield, 14-1; 189: Jake Rafferty (WAL) maj. dec. Jonyae Sostre, 15-7; 215: Tyler Gallo (WAL) pinned Kenneth Harris, 2:18; 285: Vincent Panzanella (WAL) pinned Max Turi, 1:07.<\/p>\n
Abington Heights 67, Scranton 0: At Abington Heights, the Comets won every match \u2014 highlighted by pins from Dakota Sandy (121), Jason Beck (127), Lucas Drake (160) and Joseph Scialpi (172) \u2014 to romp to a Lackawanna Division I win over Scranton.<\/p>\n
107: No match; 114: Kareha (AH) by forfeit; 121: Sandy (AH) pinned Dominguez, :54; 127: Beck (AH) pinned Luis, 2:19; 133: Full (AH) by forfeit; 139: Whitney (AH) tech. fall Leonori, 17-2; 145: Reed (AH) tech. fall Salazar, 17-2; 152: Berry (AH) by forfeit; 160: Drake (AH) pinned Swingle, :52; 172: Scialpi (AH) pinned Davis, :43; 189: Kane (AH) by forfeit; 215: Scialpi (AH) by forfeit; 285: Wheeler (AH) dec. Gottstein, 9-3.<\/p>\n
Scranton Prep 48, Elk Lake 12: At Scranton Prep, Sane Subba (139), Jeremiah Duke (152) and Jordan Henning (285) had pins to lead the Cavaliers (1-0) to a Division III win.<\/p>\n
Colby Ruark (215) had a pin for the Warriors (0-1).<\/p>\n
139: Subba (SP) pinned Crawford, 1:15;\u00a0145: Suhosky (SP) by forfeit; 152: Duke (SP) pinned Kinney, 3:27;\u00a0160: Pula (SP) by forfeit;\u00a0172: Durkin (SP) by forfeit;\u00a0189: No match;\u00a0215: Ruark (EL) pinned Simpson, 2:43;\u00a0285: Henning (SP) pinned Smith, 5:09;\u00a0107: No match; 114: Tracy (EL) by forfeit;\u00a0121: Carter (SP) by forfeit;\u00a0127: No match;\u00a0133: Diegnan (SP) won by forfeit.<\/p>\n
Blue Ridge 48, Montrose 30: At Montrose, Blue Ridge used consecutive pins from Conner Rieman (172), Zachary Krupovich (189) and Ryder Hobart (215) to earn a victory in Lackawanna Division III.<\/p>\n
Nicholas Smith (152) also had a pin for the Raiders.<\/p>\n
Sawyer Brander (107), Delos Stone (139), Carl Nolt (145) and Wyatt Steele (160) recorded pins for the Meteors.<\/p>\n
107: Brander (MON) pinned T. Lord, :20; 114: D. Tanzini (BR) by forfeit; 121: A.Tanzini (BR) by forfeit; 127: Annesi (BR) by forfeit; 133: Woodruff (BR) by forfeit; 139: Stone (MON) pinned Luce, 3:29; 145: Nolt (MON) pinned R. Lord, 2:49; 152: Smith (BR) pinned Brookes, 1:29; 160: Steele (MON) pinned Pedro, :49; 172: Rieman (BR) pinned Hobbs, :47; 189: Krupovich (BR) over Kany, 2:16; 215: Hobart (BR) pinned Anderson, 4:45; 285: Fraiser Jr. (MON) by forfeit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wallenpaupack\u2019s Sawyer Jones wrestles West Scranton\u2019s Nasir Burns during Wednesday\u2019s match at West Scranton High School. (REBECCA PARTICKA\/STAFF…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-64074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n![\"Wallenpaupack\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/STT-L-WESTWRESTLE-121725-01.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Wallenpaupack\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/STT-L-WESTWRESTLE-121725-10.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"West](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/STT-L-WESTWRESTLE-121725-02.jpg?w=620\")
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