​The Rocky Grove Orioles played the part of the comeback kids Tuesday night on their way to a 59-50 win over Region 2 rivals the Saegertown Panthers.
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The game started off well for the Orioles who jumped to a 4-0 lead in the first 90 seconds of play.

Then the Panthers took control, scoring 11 unanswered points as Rocky Grove struggled with passing errors and other turnovers.

Noah Baughman buried one from behind the three-point line to finally move the total forward for Rocky Grove with two minutes left in the quarter. He connected for seven more before the buzzer on his way to 12 in the first eight minutes of play.

Saegertown racked up on more unanswered buckets to start the second quarter, accumulating a 23-14 lead with six minutes to go in the half.

Jamison Hughes came off the bench to grab some important rebounds including one that he put back for two to get things rolling for the Orioles offensively at the 5:19 mark.

From there, the team traded baskets, as Baughman and Schiffer Anderson combined for 10 points to keep the Orioles within striking distance.  

Saegertown went into the locker room with a 33-26 advantage. They returned to continue the zone defense they employed through the first 16 minutes.
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What worked well at the start was less effective as Rocky Grove adjusted their offensive strategy.

Following an early basket by the Panthers, the Orioles went on a 10-point run that included two foul shots following a technical foul by Saegertown and a pivotal rebound and then three-point basket by Haydon Bevier
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The game was tied at 36 at the 3:19 mark; 40 at 1:47 and then at 42 as Anderson hit for two with less than 5 seconds in the third.

The Orioles took that momentum into the fourth quarter, scoring the first 7 points of the stanza. It was enough to seal the deal down the stretch as Saegertown struggled to keep up with the pace of the game.

With only 3:41 left to go, Anderson had a good look to Hughes who scored two and Rocky Grove was fully in the driver’s seat.
Saegertown attempted to get back in the game by changing their defensive strategy to man to man as Rocky Grove took their time passing the ball to create open shots.  

But two foul shots by Anderson and lap up by Landen Carter in the final 30 seconds of the game put Rocky Grove ahead 59-50 as the buzzer sounded.
Baughman had a game-high 25 points.

Anderson added 14. Carter and Hughes had 6 point apiece, Conner Ritchey had 5 and Bevier had three.

The Panters were led by Luke Young with 16 points. Jackson Scott and Levi Gardner each had nine points.

With the win, Rocky Grove remains unbeaten at home.

They are 14-2 overall and 7-0 in Region 2.

​They have four Region games left on their schedule. Only one team, Cochranton has a winning record. They will return to action Friday to face and return to action Friday when they take on Commodore Perry who are 3-11 overall..

​Cranberry’s Dalton Wenner took first place in the 127 bracket to be the top finishers in the annual Fred Bell Tournament this weekend in Grove City. It was the junior's third straight Bell title.
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Wenner defeated Penns Valley’s Erik Carlile 15-9 to take the tourney. It was an event weekend for the Berry junior.

​He went 6-0, which included his 100th career victory on Saturday when he beat Dominick Canali of Trinity 9-5. With his win in the finals, he moves to a respectable 28-5 on the season and 101-17 for career totals.
 
Also wrestling in the finals for Cranberry was Elijah Brosius, 139, who dropped a 1-0 heartbreaker to Dominic Ferraro of Pine-Richland.

Brosius beat Deydon Soto of Belle Vernon 8-7 to advance to the championship round.
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Brosius and fellow senior Dane Wenner have been chasing down the title of most wins by a Berry wrestler having eclipsed the previous mark earlier this season.

​They both currently stand at 130 career wins. Previously, Paul Zacherl held the record with 124 wins.
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Dane Wenner, 145, finished his Fred Bell weekend with a pin in the fifth-place match versus Victor Bonus of McGuffey.

Aiden Thompson finished in fourth place in the 114 bracket. Thompson bounded back from a tech fall to Grove City’s Ian Stearns in the semifinals to beat Parker Jennings of Trinity by a 10-7 decision in the consolation finals.

​He eventually lost to Michael Copello of Ridgway 9-7 in the third-place match.
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Skyler Myers was Cranberry’s final medalist, finishing in eighth place at 160.
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Franklin had three wrestlers on the podium this weekend.

​285 - Kaden Kiselka had a 4-1 decision over Delathian Boanes of Grove City to earn third place in the 285 bracket. Kiselka worked his way back from the consolation bracket to earn a spot in the third-place match, beating Emmitt Summerlin of Cochranton 4-2, and then Connor Avery of General McLane 3-2.
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Drew Kockler and Gary Kiselka both finished in sixth place at 189 and 215, respectively.
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Titusville’s Sawyer Wolfkiel was the only Rocket to earn a medal after Issac Roberts and Kameron Mong had to withdrawal from the tournament due to illness and injury.

Wolfkiel defeated Van Ward of Union City 4-0 to take third place in the 107 bracket.
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Worth noting
Meadville’s Ben Fuller took the crown at 121 after defeating Rocky Kowle  of North East 7-2. Cash Morrell of Cochranton dropped at 14-4 major decision to Mario Hutcherson of Kiski Area to finish second at 172.

It was as if Senior Night came a little early to The Castle as all three upperclassmen contributed to the Knights’ commanding 70-13 win over the Rockets.  

Joe Findlan got things started for Franklin with the first basket of the night on his way to a game high 15. 

Will Findlan was right behind him with 14 points. 

But it was Will Lisseveld’s bucket at the end of the game that brought his fellow Knights, and the crowd, to their feet with excitement. 

It might have been only his second game of the season, but Lisseveld’s is no stranger to the team. After serving as the manager for the past two years, Lisseveld earned the right to suit up this season.

“He took his responsibilities very seriously – making sure all the water bottles were filled, cleaning the floor before each practice, running the camera for filming the games, and offering a tremendous amount of support to his teammates,” said Franklin head coach Torin Smith.

Those teammates tried to return the favor on Friday night with a loud roar after he connected for two in the paint with only 30 seconds left to play. The bucket was Lisseveld’s first career points.

“The entire team was extremely happy for him and celebrated by dousing him with water in the locker room,” Smith said. “We’re all very proud of him and thankful for his efforts the last three years.”

Much like their first go-around with Titusville, Franklin controlled the contest from start to finish. The Knights were ahead 30-0 after one; 44-6 after two; and 62-9 after three. They went on to win 70-13 and improve to 8-7 on the year and 3-5 in Region 5. 

Contributing to the win along with the seniors were Alex Umbenhaur with 13; Nate Fezell, 10; Noah Young, 6; Nolan Parry, 5; Darius Cassano, 3; and Jack McNulty, 2. 

When the brackets came out last week for the class 2A District 10 team championships, there was one team oddly missing. 

The Region 5 second-place Titusville Rockets who have a 5-1 record and who beat a few of the teams that were in the postseason bracket to compete.
 
Was it an oversight? Was it a snub?

On social media the speculations and confusions spread around after the simple question was asked, ‘where is Titusville?’ 
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It was a question many people had given the Rockets are one of the top squads in northwest Pennsylvania.

“We opted out,” said head coach Mo Burns. “We had a guy get banged up against Corry (on Wednesday) and we had a guy banged up before that and we had a couple kids who were sick and that carried over into this weekend,” Burns explained. “I just woke up at 2:30 in the morning Friday morning and thought ‘I just don’t think this is the best thing for our entire team.’ Then the coaches got together and we were all in agreement. That for where we are right now. health-wise, the risk wasn’t worth the reward. So we opted out.” 
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Burns’ concerns were dramatically illustrated over the weekend at the prestigious Fred Bell tournament in Grove City.

Though they started very strong on Friday with several wins in the championship flight and looking strong even in the consolation rounds as they headed into day two, they weren't at their best. "You can get by the early rounds not at your best," Burns said. But in a tournament with 43 wrestlers the rounds just keep getting tougher."
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Saturday the wheels fell off. Top seed Isaac Roberts was sick and dropped out after losing in the quarter finals, Kameron Mong tore something in his leg and also opted out. And then they weren’t able to win a single match in the “blood round,”  the quarterfinal consolation matches where the winners move into the medal round and losers pack their gym bags and become spectators. 

​The Rockets' 285-pounder Bryce Wadkins also made it to the quarterfinal but was pinned by General McLane’s Connor Avery.
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The only Rocket left standing in the medal round was 107 pounder Sawyer Wolfkiel who made it to the semifinals.
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Wolfkiel's run came from four straight wins against Jack Kondrasuk of Laurel (pin), Rycker Kozalovsky of Redbank Valley (pin), Angelo Boni of Cenral Valley (tech fall), and Jackson Hoy of Trinity (3-1).
Wolfkiel lost in the semis to Pine Richland’s Bennett Ferraro. He then had to wrestle back into the third place match by beating Williamport’s Jordan Piselli. 
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In the third place match he got a 4-0 decision over Union City’s Van Ward. Wolfkiel finished 6-1 on the day. He has been working hard to get down to 107 this year in time for the post season. He has been wrestling up at 114 and 121 and has a 27-5 season record. The junior is only 11 wins from the century mark.

Sawyer has been working really hard to get down to the 107 weight in preparation for the postseason. Which he did for this tournament and earned the third place finish. 
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“I don’t think we’ve seen Sawyer at his best,” Burns said about working his way down in weight, but he has done what he has needed to win. “We’re super proud of him and it is great to see him rewarded for the hard work he has been putting in this season.

As for the rest of the team and their surprising 13th place finish at the Bell, Burns isn’t worried.
“Coming into this we knew we had some kids who weren’t the healthiest,” Burns said. “We had a good Friday but coming into today(Saturday)… whether we were a little mentally fatigued, a little physically fatigued… it just caught up to us.”
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Burns said that there were things to be learned from the tournament despite the poor overall showing.

​“We lost some tight matches today at we’re going to have to win down the road. We’ll have to build on those. We have to mentally reset and then physically get ready. We have three weeks to get better. I’m confident that will happen,” Burns said, referring to the postseason tournaments with the goal of having wrestlers make it to Hershey for the state championships.

The Oilers used a balanced offensive attack to secure their first win over Route 8 rival Franklin since 2018. And they got the 61-42 win in front of a hometown crowd Friday night.

The opening minutes of the game were back and forth between the two teams, before the Oilers scored 11 unanswered points to go ahead 15-5.

Franklin's Will Findlan recorded nine of his game-high 16 points in the first quarter, but Oil City came out of the stanza with a 21-12 lead.
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The Oilers went on another run to open the second quarter. Will McMahon, Nevin Stinson and Michael Fink combined for 10 points and Oil City pulled ahead 31-12 before Jameson Wofford hit his second three of the night to more the Franklin forward with 4:44 left in the half.
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Oil City held Franklin to only seven points in the second and went into the locker room with a 35-19 advantage.

While the Knights were more successful on offense in the third quarter, Oil City always had an answer. By the end of the stanza, the gap had grown by 1 and Oil City was ahead 46-29.

From there, Oil City’s fortune only grew.
After a bucket by Franklin’s Ashton Purich, Oil City went on yet another run, this time for nine points and a 55-31 lead with less than five minutes left to play.

The Knights outscored the Oilers 11-6 down the stretch, including a dunk by Findlan with less than 30 seconds to go.   
   
Eight Oilers contributed to the winning offense. McMahon led the charge with 11 points, Stinson had 10; Chase Melat, nine; Fink and Spence Singleton seven apiece; Steven Heise and Dalton Dasher, six each; and Derek Jones, five.
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Franklin, who was without starter Ian Higley, also received eight points from Wofford; six, Alex Umbenhaur; five, Nate Fezell; three, Nick Fezell; and two each from Purich and Noah Young.  

​Noah Baughman drained seven treys on his way to a 35-point night as the Rocky Grove Orioles beat Region 2 rivals Maplewood Tigers 62-48 at the Nest.
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Baughman hit a layup off the tip off to put the Orioles up 2-0 in the first 3 seconds of the game.
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The Wood struggled to keep up with the fast pace of the first quarter as the Grove jumped out to a 26-12 lead on the back of 18 points by Baughman who closed out the period by dropping in a three-pointer at the buzzer.
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In the second quarter, the Tigers clawed their way back within six due in part to a eight-point run midway through the period. As the teams headed into the locker room, the Orioles had a 34-28 advantage.
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Rocky Grove took control again in the third quarter, starting with another three points from Baughman followed by two from Landon Carter and another five from Baughman.

The Tigers managed just four points before the Orioles soared ahead on an 11-point run.
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Maplewood scored the final three points of the quarter, but the damage was done as Rocky Grove outscored them 21-8 in the quarter to secure a 55-36 lead headed into the final eight minutes of play.
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The fourth quarter was nearly a washout for both teams as they struggled with ball control, fouls and missed shots.

​Senior Jacob Harton came off the bench to score three points and close out the Orioles offensive attack.
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Rocky Grove netted 11 three pointers on the night, including two from Schiffer Anderson and one each from Carter and Aiden Focht.

​Carter had a total of nine on the night, Anderson had six, Focht had five, Jameson Hughes and Harton had three a piece and Connor Ritchey had one.

Kyle Jordan led the Tigers with 20 points.

Tonight's win gives the Orioles a two-game cushion in the Region 2 standings.

The Orioles (10-2, 5-0) will travel to Jamestown to round out their first cycle of Region 2 competition.

They return to action at home, where they are undefeated on the season, when they host Redbank Valley High School for an afternoon game Saturday.