Panthers get 'gritty' win over Illini wrestlers

No. 18 Pitt’s 22-9 victory over No. 25 Illinois on Sunday wasn’t always pretty, but Dayton Pitzer notched another victory over a top-10 opponent and Holden Heller and Finn Solomon each rallied for come-from-behind wins as the Panthers beat the Illini for a second straight season.

“I thought overall it was a good win,” Gavin said. “I thought we wrestled tough. We had a lot of gritty wins. A lot of our guys stayed focused and got the job done in tough situations.”

Strong finish for Pitzer

No. 11 Pitzer beat No. 8 Luke Luffman 10-3 in a heavyweight match that was much closer than the final score. After a scoreless first period, Pitzer rode him for most of the second, but a video review led to a locking hands call, and Luffman escaped on the restart for a 2-0 lead entering the third.

Pitzer, a redshirt freshman who has shown elite mat wrestling skills but hasn’t been able to score many takedowns against top competition, put it all together in the final minute. He escaped, shot a nice single-leg, then switched to a double for the go-ahead takedown.

Luffman escaped and came close to a late takedown of his own, but Pitzer got the three and two backpoints for the big win.

“He beat a good kid, and he did it with his offense. That was good progress to see,” Gavin said. “I was really happy with the way that he competed. He had a beautiful shot and a great finish against a guy that’s really hard to finish on.”

The wisdom of Solomon

Solomon is ranked 23rd nationally, but nothing has come easily for the redshirt freshman transfer from North Carolina State. He’s often given up the first takedown in matches this season but found a way to rally for a victory.

“It’s hard to stay focused on getting the next point, but we’ve worked on it in practices, to stay focused,” Solomon said. “Coach Keith tells us don’t worry about the match, just keep scoring points.”

He took that to the extreme on Sunday, as Illinois’ Jake Harrier scored the opening takedown, then tilted Solomon for a 7-0 lead. Solomon tried not to focus on the deficit and pile up points.

“That was my plan going out: to score as many points as I could,” he said. “It’s a little more motivation, when you’re down seven points.”

An escape and a takedown just before the first-period buzzer got him back in the match at 7-4. He escaped to start the third, then took the lead with another takedown. It didn’t last, however, as Harrier reversed him. Solomon nearly scored a reversal of his own, but a video review gave him an escape to tie the match at 9 heading to the third.

Harrier’s went ahead on an escape, but Solomon scored a final takedown, then held off Harrier’s late attempts for a wild, 12-11 victory.

While he overcame the big deficit, it’s not a recipe that Solomon will want to follow on a regular basis.

“We’re trying to work on a faster start for me. I haven’t had good first periods, but I’ve ended well,” he said. “I talk to Coach about it a lot. Just a mindset of making it a game instead of being stressed out about winning or losing.”

Holden steady

Heller faced a similar situation in his 165-pound match with Chris Moore. Heller escaped to start the second period, but Moore went big and it paid off with seven points.

“That kid threw a headlock from left field,” Gavin said. “I don’t think anyone saw it coming.”

Heller fought off his back, escaped, then scored a takedown to make it 7-5 but Moore extended his lead with two escapes. Heller scored a takedown with 42 seconds remaining, released Moore and got a late takedown for an 11-10 victory.

“I’m very proud of Holden,” Gavin said. “It would have been very easy to say I got caught and pinned, but he fought his ass off, and then he got all those takedowns. He’s a leader and it shows.”

Staying positive

Not all of Pitt’s comebacks resulted in victories. Cole Matthews battled back from a 3-1 deficit to force overtime at 141, but Danny Pucino scored 16 seconds into the sudden-victory period for a 6-3 win.

Matthews, who started last season ranked first nationally, is now 3-3 on the season. He went 21-3 last season, when he lost in the blood round and 21-4 the previous season, when he finished fifth nationally.

Most of his losses during that time have followed a similar pattern, where he struggles to find offense, and a single takedown – or in this case two takedowns – prove to be his undoing.

Matthews did show some more offense in the third period against Pucino, but was unable to finish his shot, and then the Illinois wrestler scored a quick takedown. Matthews continued to push the pace and got a stalling point with one second remaining in the third to force overtime.

“He got in deep today, he just didn’t finish,” Gavin said. “Obviously he’s in a bit of a slump. You don’t overreact to it. The temptation is to say you’ve got to change everything. You’ve got to take the emotion out of it and try to progress with your wrestling. What he’s done in the past hasn’t gone away.”

Gavin knows that there are plenty in the Pitt fanbase – and others across the country – wondering what has happened with Matthews.

“I’m trying to keep him away from all the negative,” Gavin said. “He’s a tough kid. He cares about the team a lot. He wants to be that leader. I know he’s disappointed. You have to be kind of unemotional and be practical and say, ‘I need to work on this, and I win that match.’”

No. 18 Pitt 22, No. 25 Illinois 9

157-Joe Roberts, I, dec. Jared Keslar, 6-3.

165-No. 9 Holden Heller, P, dec. Chris Moore, 11-10.

174-No. 4 Edmond Ruth, I, dec. No. 20 dec. Luca Augustine, 11-5.

184-No. 15 Reece Heller, P, maj. dec. Caden Ernd, 11-3.

197-Mac Stout, P, dec. Isaiah Pettigrew, 7-4.

285- No. 11 Dayton Pitzer, P, dec. No. 8 Luke Luffman, 10-3.

125-Colton Camacho, P, dec. Justin Cardani, 4-0.

133-No. 17 Vinnie Santaniello, P, dec. No. 24 Tony Madrigal, 5-4.

141- No. 27 Danny Pucino, I, dec. No. 13 Cole Matthews, 6-3 (SV).

149- No. 23 Finn Solomon, P, dec. Jake Harrier, 12-11.