Valley wrestler David Schuffert leads A-K Valley contingent into PIAA tournament

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, February 23, 2018 | 11:27 PM

Valley heavyweight David Schuffert is wrestling with a heavy heart.

Shortly after Schuffert lost in overtime of the WPIAL final to South Side’s Bishop McCoy last weekend, he received a call that Joan Schuffert, his grandmother and “best friend,” was near death after about a year of illness. She died Sunday.

Schuffert did his best to take out his anger on his opponents, advancing to the PIAA Class AA Southwest Regional semifinals with a first-period pin of Huntingdon’s Isaiah Reid in a quarterfinal match Friday at IUP’s Kovalchick Conference and Athletic Center.

“She came to every wrestling match she could, (and) she’d yell at me if I did something wrong,” Schuffert said. “I’m just doing this for her now.”

Although the nose bleed, suffered during a first-period scramble, led to a few blood timeouts, Oswalt did his best to ensure Bruce got little rest. Oswalt pushed the pace, and after Bruce’s second-period reversal tied the score, the Burrell freshman buckled down to score the last nine points of the match via a pair of escapes, a pair of takedowns and three back points.

“I just need to keep that pace up (Saturday) and keep wrestling the way I have been,” said Oswalt, who will wrestle Glendale’s Brock McMillen — a teammate from Young Guns Wrestling Club — in the semifinals. “I can win matches that way. Obviously, we’ve wrestled some pretty tough tournaments, and they’ve prepared me for now.”

Burrell sophomore 106-pounder Trent Valovchik also advanced to the quarterfinals at 106 pounds, but he dropped to the consolation bracket after getting pinned by top-seeded Conner Edinger of Quaker Valley in the quarterfinals.

Burrell came into regionals with 10 wrestlers and ended the day with nine still alive, including seven in the consolation bracket.

“Bad start, solid finish,” Burrell coach Shaun Gates said. “(We’re just looking for) fight. Right now we’ve only got two guys guaranteed to be on the podium. We’re looking for those guys to punch their tickets to the finals and then guys battling back (in the consolation bracket). It’s all about heart.”

The biggest surprise came when Burrell senior Shaun Gates, the WPIAL 160-pound champion, dropped an 8-5 decision to Penn Cambria’s Jarred Stoy in the first round, part of a complete wipeout of the WPIAL’s qualifiers in that weight class. Riverview’s Christian Tamburro, the WPIAL runner-up, lost a 12-6 decision to Bedford’s Chance Dull in that bracket. Gates recovered by getting a pin in his first consolation bout to advance to Saturday’s action.

In addition to Gates and Valovchik, Burrell wrestlers alive in the consolation bracket include Bryan Gaul (126 pounds), A.J. Corrado (132), Ethan Awes (138), Austin Mele (170) and Ricky Feroce (182). Valley’s Travis Lasko (113) and Noah Hutcherson (170) lost their opening matches but also won their consolation bouts to get to Saturday.

Burrell’s Noah Linderman and Tamburro dropped a pair of matches each Friday to bow out of the tournament.

Doug Gulasy is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at dgulasy@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dgulasy_Trib.

Tags: Burrell, Riverview, Valley