Wrestling: Boyertown stopped short of Giant Center by Central Dauphin in PIAA Duals prelim

No sport can deliver the emotional swings like a high stakes wrestling dual.

There was no debating the stakes of Monday’s match between Central Dauphin and Boyertown. A win equaled a trip to Hershey for the PIAA Class 3A Team Championships, a loss spelling the end of the team campaign.

The surge of highs and lows matched the moment, from the deflating start delivered to the home crowd by the District 3 fourth-seeded Rams, to the reenergizing pins from Bear upperweights Brody Ayres and Michael Palmiero to level the match.

The drama continued and the Bears were on the chase down the stretch, ultimately earning the thing every team hopes for: an opportunity to win.

But Central Dauphin junior C.J. Ferree wouldn’t allow Boyertown junior Beck Babb to play the hero two matches in a row.

Ferree’s hard-fought 3-0 decision of Babb in the 139-pound finale allowed Central Dauphin to escape Boyertown with a 31-25 win and a return trip to Hershey for this weekend’s PIAA 3A Team Championships.

Boyertown, which placed third in District 1 thanks to Babb’s heroics in the third-place match win over Quakertown last Saturday, fell to a 22-3 record and 5-0 run through the Pioneer Athletic Conference regular season.

“It’s kind of bittersweet because the kids… it’s been a long time since I’ve been around a Boyertown team – going back to our state runner-up team – it’s been a long time where we have a number of kids who just continue to invest in the hard work, the grind. I can’t say enough about our kids,” said Bears head coach Tony Haley.

Central Dauphin (13-4) was third place at last year’s PIAA Duals, and while it isn’t the same powerhouse as last year, it’s a program with pedigree that showed in Boyertown.

The Rams will meet District 11 powerhouse Bethlehem Catholic in the round of 16 on Thursday at the Giant Center.

“Coming into this match, I thought we had maybe two-three wins on paper. I thought that they had three wins, maybe four wins on paper. And I thought that we had a lot of toss-up matches,” Haley said.

Central Dauphin started off strongly thanks to a pair of seniors in Liam Flanagan (Washington & Lee commit) and Gavin Reynolds (East Stroudsburg). Flanagan (28-4) bested Shane Stankina 8-3 at 145 and Reynolds (31-8) came back to down Dykie 5-2 at 152. After Mason Wydra’s 9-2 decision of JD Heiser, CD’s two-time PIAA runner-up Ryan Garvick (34-4) pinned at 172 to grow a 15-0 lead.

Josh Larrimore, who bumped up to 189, got Boyertown on the board in a wild 16-11 defeat of Cole Ramberger. Sophomore Ayres and junior Palmiero delivered with back-to-back pins at 215 and 285 and suddenly the Bears erased the 15-point deficit.

“When we got to our bigger guys, they came up big,” Haley said. “I knew we could score points there. … We bumped some kids up. We’ve been doing that up top, trying to find the best possible matchups. It stinks for some of our kids because they’re being pulled, and they don’t know if they’re going in, but we looked for the matchups, and when we did those things, they worked out.”

The Rams suddenly swung the match in its favor with a pin from PIAA qualifier Thunder Beard at 107, then Francis Perri’s major at 114, good for a 25-15 advantage.

The Bears’ Brody Coleman (31-7) came close on a first-period pin via cradle at 121 but settled for a 13-4 major of Pierce Lemmons. But CD responded with Luke Hitchcock scoring late for a 10-6 win over senior Andrew Myslinski for a 28-19 lead.

Boyertown standout Gavin Sheridan (36-3), the team’s only previous PIAA qualifier (seventh in 2023), kept the match in the balance with his third-period pin (4:48) at 133 pounds to set up the dramatic finale.

“Even though, in my opinion, there was a lot that went wrong, didn’t go as planned, you’re in the last match of the night, and you have a chance to tie it up and maybe win or lose on tiebreaker,” Haley said. “We still gave ourselves an opportunity to win.”

With Boyertown in position to lose via tiebreaker (matches won) with only a tie, Babb needed bonus points against Ferree (32-8) but the Rams junior didn’t relent in a 3-0 victory that settled the match.

“Our kids battled, and you take a look at our kids, we have one state qualifier on our team, and we just took third in the district. We just battled with Central Dauphin, who was ranked 13th or 14th. We knocked off Quakertown, who was ranked 12th or 13th,” Haley said.

“Our kids are right there, and we’re young. I’m hoping, if there’s one seed that I hope this plants, remember this feeling. And I hope that that feeling drives them for the future, because we are climbing back up.”

NOTES: Boyertown is due to compete at Downingtown West’s Whippet Duals on Saturday, Feb. 17, a week ahead of the individual postseason which opens with the District 1 North tournament at Perkiomen Valley on Feb. 24.

PIAA Class AAA Duals (preliminary)

Central Dauphin 31, Boyertown 25

145 – Liam Flanagan (CD) dec. Shane Stankina, 8-3 (3-0)

152 – Gavin Reynolds (CD) dec. Owen Dykie, 5-2 (6-0)

160 – Mason Wydra (CD) dec. J.D. Heiser, 9-2 (9-0)

172 – Ryan Garvick (CD) pinned Ryder Gehris, 0:39 (15-0)

189 – Joshua Larrimore (Bt) dec. Cole Ramberger, 16-11 (15-3)

215 – Brody Ayres (Bt) pinned Anthony Neuhard, 5:38 (15-9)

285 – Michael Palmiero (Bt) pinned Gabriel Lara, 2:06 (15-15)

107 – Thunder Beard (CD) pinned Boden Waite, 3:50 (21-15)

114 – Francis Perri (CD) maj. dec. Cole Fogle, 8-0 (25-15)

121 – Brody Coleman (Bt) maj. dec. Pierce Lemmons, 13-4 (25-19)

127 – Luke Hitchcock (CD) dec. Andrew Myslinski, 10-6 (28-19)

133 – Gavin Sheridan (Bt) pinned Aidan Mariano, 4:48 (28-25)

139 – C.J. Ferree (CD) dec. Beck Babb, 3-0 (31-25)