Jan. 26, 2006

CLEVELAND - Cleveland State rallied from eight points down with three bouts remaining to edge out Pittsburgh, 16-15, in the Vikings' Eastern Wrestling League opener at Woodling Gym on Thursday (Jan. 26) night. Freshman Rashard Goff completed the comeback with a gutsy 4-1 decision at heavyweight.

The win sends the Vikings to 5-4 overall and 1-0 in the EWL, while Pittsburgh falls to 2-6 and 0-2 in conference.

With the Vikings trailing 15-13, Goff matched up with Lou Thomas of Pittsburgh in a winner-take-all 285 bout. After a scoreless first period, Thomas began the second with an escape to take a 1-0 lead. Goff would respond in the third, escaping from the down position and scoring a takedown and nearly two minutes of riding time for the deciding victory.

"Our guys are learning a hard lesson," head coach Jack Effner said. "The margin of error is so small at this level. You have to get up for every bout."

Freshman Jayrl Hunt got the Vikings on the board first in the 125 pound bout with a 3-2 win over Brad Gentzle. Trailing 2-1 with 15 seconds remaining in the third, Hunt shot to Gentzle's right leg and scored the winning takedown just four seconds before the buzzer.

At 133, sophomore David Armstrong held a 4-2 lead on Mike Ciotti with 15 seconds remaining in the bout, but Ciotti flipped Armstrong on his back to score the tying takedown and the winning back points for the 7-4 decision as time expired.

Pittsburgh added two more closely contested wins at 141 and 149 for a 9-3 advantage, but freshman Victer Crenshaw continued his winning ways and got the Vikings back in the match at 157.

Leading 4-3 with 1:44 in riding time entering the third period against Sean Richmond, Crenshaw quickly escaped and scored a last second takedown and three-point near fall for an 11-3 major decision to bring CSU to within two at 9-7.

Pittsburgh would answer back in the following bout, as Justin Nestor out-battled sophomore Tim Scarl at 165 to push the Panthers' lead to 12-9. Nestor picked up the only point he would need in the second period with an escape before riding Scarl for the entire third period for a 2-0 decision.

Junior David Gilkey held a 4-2 advantage late in the third period of the 174 bout, but Nick Padezan scored a takedown, cutting Gilkey's riding time to under a minute and just barely prevented the Viking from escaping before time expired to send the bout to overtime. After an uneventful sudden victory period, Padenza scored three back points and an escape in overtime to claim an 8-4 decision and give the Panthers their biggest lead at 15-7.

Senior Ron Howard worked a strong bout against Kyle Deliere at 184, controlling the Panther for nearly the entire bout for a 9-3 decision and cutting the Pittsburgh lead to five. Senior Ishmal Williams followed and closed the gap to 15-13 with a gutsy decision over Mike Heist at 197 to set up Goff's heroics.

"Ishmal was our star tonight," Effner continued. "He is a talented kid, but he has been away from wrestling for so long. He knows he's good, but he needs to get the matches under his belt, and, now that he has, he is turning it on."

Williams joined the Vikings last spring after spending seven years of active duty in the United States Army, serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The loss is Pittsburgh's second conference loss decided by one point. Bloomsburg handed the Panthers a 17-16 defeat in their first match of the season on Nov. 15.

The Vikings head to Pennsylvania next week as the battle Lock Haven on Feb. 4 at 7:30 p.m. before facing Bloomsburg on Feb. 5 at 1:00 p.m.

Cleveland State 16, Pittsburgh 15

125 Jayrl Hunt (CSU) DEC Brad Gentzle (Pitt.), 3-2 [3-0]
133 Mike Ciotti (Pitt.) DEC David Armstrong (CSU), 7-4 [3-3]
141 Ron Tarquinio (Pitt.) DEC Mike Hurley (CSU), 9-4 [3-6]
149 Joey Ecklof (Pitt.) DEC Ryan Hurley (CSU), 6-1 [3-9]
157 Victer Crenshaw (CSU) MD Sean Richmond (Pitt.), 11-3 [7-9]
165 Justin Nestor (Pitt.) DEC Tim Scarl (CSU), 2-0 [7-12]
174 Nick Padezan (Pitt.) DEC David Gilkey (CSU), 8-4 [7-15]
184 Ron Howard (CSU) DEC Kyle Deliere (Pitt.), 9-3 [10-15]
197 Ishmal Williams (CSU) DEC Mike Heist (Pitt.), 3-2 [13-15]
285 Rashard Goff (CSU) DEC Lou Thomas (Pitt.), 4-1 [16-15]