Visiting Spalding had to sit through Loyola Blakefield’s walk-out music before many of their matches at their dual meet Tuesday Night. If Cavaliers had a tune that represented them, it would probably be Aretha Franklin’s “Respect.”
The second-ranked Cavaliers (4-1) have consistently silenced their doubters all season, and Tuesday was no different. The teams split the first five matches, but after that it was all Spalding as it won the final nine bouts in a 59-14 wipe out of Loyola in a MIAA dual meet.
Loyola (15-4), which is having a run of injuries and illnesses, got its 14th team point in the fifth match of the evening. The No. 5 Dons never scored another team point again after that.
“I think we were a little underestimated at the beginning of the year,” Spalding coach Michael Laidley said. “I was very surprised by how well we did tonight. Obviously, they had some guys out, but I think our guys wrestled their butts off and came out with a good win against a good team.”
The Cavaliers have only dropped one dual-meet match this year, losing in the final match to top-ranked Gilman, 36-33, last week.
Laidley was pleasantly surprised by Rudolph Berry, his 150-pounder, and 157-pounder Nicco Stellar. Both were wrestling their first-ever varsity matches and both came up with wins.
One of the key matches was the first, when Spalding freshman Charlie Mutschler wrestled Loyola’s Tyler Verceles at 106 pounds. Verceles is ranked second in the state by Legacy Wrestling and won a 4-0 decision, but the fight the Cavs’ freshman showed set the tone for the evening.
Loyola got wins from Verceles, Jayden Jackson, the No. 2 wrestler in the state at 120 pounds, and Cayden Farver at 132 to take a 14-12 lead in the match.
From then on, however, Spalding took over. The Cavs got a pin from Zane Leitzel over Lincoln Weeks at 138 to take an 18-14 lead. That was followed by a 4-2 decision by Spalding’s Ryder Kolat over Joshua Hale at 144 to run the lead to 21-14. Down the stretch, Spalding got pins from Stellar (157), James Ward (175) and Luke Barulli (215), a tech fall from Berry (150) and a decision by Josh Taylor (165) to put the match away.
“I feel like we came out and we were definitely ready to wrestle,” Leitzel said. “We had some complications with our lineup, but we’re working through them right now. After our heavyweight (Delmar White) got hurt before the season, we were wondering how good we were. I think that now we’re getting the right people at the right weights.”
For Loyola, the loss was tough to take.
“It was a bad time for us to have some guys banged up,” Loyola coach Steven Truitt said. “We’re just trying to get healthy. Spalding’s a great team, and they won the match fair and square. We need to put our heads down and work harder in the weight room and get ready for our end-of-season run.”
Archbishop Spalding 59, Loyola 14
106: Verceles (LOY) d Mutschler, 4-0; 113: Chesla (SPL) p Moles, 1:09; Jackson (LOY) tf over Bailey, 19-3; 126: Garretson (SPL) p Tobin, 3:14; 132: Farver (LOY) p Zang, 1:15; 138: Leitzel (SPL) p Brock, 1:15; 144: Kolat (SPL) d Hale, 4-2: 150: Berry (SPL) tf over Johnson, 19-3; 157: Stellar (SPL) p McKenzie, 3:23; 165: Josh Taylor (SPL) Lazatti, 3-2; 175: Ward (SPL) p Fought, 1:59; 190: Winkler (SPL) won by forfeit; 215; Barulli (SPL) p Kelly, :56; Hvy: Byrne (SPL) won by forfeit.