Ecklof shines in front of home crowd but Pitt falls to Lehigh, 28-9

Pitt freshman 149-pound wrestler Joey Ecklof made a successful trip back home to the Lehigh… Pitt freshman 149-pound wrestler Joey Ecklof made a successful trip back home to the Lehigh Valley. His team couldn’t say the same.

In front of a hometown crowd that favored him rather than his Lehigh opponent, freshman Trevor Chinn, Ecklof secured a Panther win.

And he did so in what Pitt head coach Rande Stottlemyer called “vintage Joey” fashion.

Ecklof’s efforts, however, were not enough for the Panthers.

Pitt (2-4 overall, 0-1 Eastern Wrestling League) suffered a 28-9 dual meet loss at the hands of the 11th-ranked Mountain Hawks Friday in front of a crowd of 1,794 in Lehigh’s Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall.

“We wrestled a lot harder, better and more focused,” Stottlemyer said. “We can do better than that, though. We’re going to need to.”

Stottlemyer did, however, have plenty of positives to say about his freshman’s performance.

Chinn looked for an early takedown on Ecklof, a Northampton, Pa., native, with a hold of his leg. Before Chinn could get up on Ecklof, Ecklof slithered backward, reversed positions and scored a takedown on Chinn en route to an 8-3 decision.

“He went from being taken down to getting the guy on his back in milliseconds,” Stottlemyer said. “There was just no way he wanted to go back from the Valley with a loss under his belt.”

Lehigh jumped out to an early 5-0 lead in the 125-pound match, as Matt Fisk picked up a 17-0 technical fall victory over Pitt’s Brad Gentzle, who was also was making his return to the Lehigh Valley.

Senior Mike Ciotti narrowed the Lehigh lead to 5-3 with a decision at 133 pounds against John Stout.

“Every year he’s stepped up to the plate,” Stottlemyer said of Ciotti. “He’s entered each year as a backup only to emerge as a starter, and this year will be his fourth time in the EWL tournament.

“He’s got the advantage of experience.”

At 5-3, the match of the night took place at 141 pounds. Pitt’s Ron Tarquinio, ranked No. 9, met up with the No. 3-ranked Cory Cooperman for a rematch of the Southern Scuffle Tournament championship match, where Tarquinio lost by one in overtime.

Once again, the final didn’t fall in Tarquinio’s favor.

Cooperman broke a 2-2 tie in the third period with a reverse and added another point off a penalty to Tarquinio for locked hands as he took the match, 5-3, for the Mountain Hawks.

“Down 5-3, he was in the hunt,” Stottlemyer said. “But you’ve got to give Tarquinio credit. He competes with the best in the country and we’re hoping that this is his year.”

Justin Nestor shut out Lehigh’s Dave Nakasone, 6-0, to bring the Panthers back within three points.

The win improved Nestor’s record on the season to 4-2 in dual-meet action and moved him up in the Pitt record books with his 108 career victory as a Panther.

Nestor’s win, though, was the last for the Panthers that night. Lehigh ran off four straight victories from 174 pounds to the heavyweight class for the 28-9 final score over Pitt.

“We got beat up at Lehigh,” Stottlemyer said. “There’s room for encouragement, though, and we have got to get the max out of what we can. If you fight hard, you always have that chance to win.”

Pitt continues action Friday when they host Michigan State in the Fitzgerald Field House at 7:30 p.m. It resumes EWL action the following Friday at Cleveland State.

“Stay healthy,” Stottlemyer said. “We need to stay healthy and get a little better edge on conditioning and technique.

“The EWL is not as strong as it has been in the past, so you never know what can happen.”