State Duals Thursday notebook

             Chestnut Ridge coach Greg Lazor was hoping to get a little more shuteye tonight. Lazor and the rest of the Lions crew will get that opportunity after punching their ticket to the Class AA quarterfinals in a 49-23 victory over Benton in the first round of the PIAA state team tournament.

            Thanks to a 30-0 run from 182 to 106, the Lions posted the win in their first-ever match at the state duals and will wrestle defending finalist Boiling Springs in a quarterfinal at noon on Friday.

            “I’ll always take wrestling later in the day anytime over having to get up at 6:30 in the morning,” Lazor said with a laugh. “We’ll get to sleep in a little bit.”

            He also stated a trip to get away from wrestling might be in store before the next dual.

            “Maybe we’ll go to the local Bass Pro Shops store – we have a bunch of country boys and they’ll have some fun with that.”

            While Ridge did win nine bouts against Benton, Lazor was hoping to see some more offense from them.

            “We don’t really talk about the wins or losses,” he said. “We talk about how we wrestle and how we attack and go at it. We want to be the aggressors and that’s something we’re pushing. We felt good about where the match was win and loss wise, but I was looking for us to be a little more aggressive.”

            That bit of timidness could likely be drawn from a first experience in a new event for the Lions. Every wrestler and coach on the squad has been jumping at the chance to make it to Hershey, so a win over a weaker team like Benton as opposed to a stronger first round match should benefit Chestnut Ridge, no matter what happens in the next round.

            “There’s still a lot of nerves to wrestle here at the Giant Center in high school,” said freshman 160-pounder Conner Buttry, who noted he had competed in the building before. “But we came out and did what we had to do.”

            Buttry had one of the signature wins on Thursday, 3-2 over Benton’s Dominic Vitale on the strength of a late second period reversal.

Friday’s First Round Consolations – 8 am

Burrell vs Western Wayne

Lower Moreland vs Central Columbia

Saucon Valley vs South Fayette

Benton vs Saegertown

Friday’s Quarterfinals – Noon

Bermudian Springs vs Redbank Valley

Bethlehem Catholic vs Fort LeBoeuf

Reynolds vs West Branch

Chestnut Ridge vs Boiling Springs

Four matches taking place at the Class AA State Duals on Thursday.