Hough’s first win lifts Franklin Regional wrestling past Penn-Trafford

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, December 12, 2018 | 10:12 PM

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The Franklin Regional wrestling team needed a stopper during Wednesday’s WPIAL Class AAA Section 1A match at Penn-Trafford.

So Panthers coach Matt Lebe called on Charlie Hough, not the former Major League Baseball pitcher whose main pitch was the knuckleball, to be that person.

Hough, who was 0-21 during the 2017-18 season, delivered a huge win, defeating Penn-Trafford’s Connor Shirey, 9-4, at 195 pounds as the Panthers rallied for a 43-33 victory.

This is only the third season of wrestling for the senior. He said he doesn’t play baseball, but he has a Charlie Hough baseball card.

“That was great for him,” Lebe said. “He loves the sport of wrestling, works hard every day and stayed committed to the process. It’s an awesome feeling for him.”

Penn-Trafford raced to an 18-6 lead on consecutive pins by Tony Zona (160 pounds), Lukas Johnson (170) and John Bachar (182).

But Hough, who weighed in at 182, bumped up to 195 and answered the bell.

The word from Lebe was: “He told me I don’t care how the match goes, but I think you can win it. But if worse comes to worse, don’t give up a pin,” Hough said. “I had to go out there and get the win. It got the momentum rolling for the guys in the lower weights.”

Hough fell behind 1-0 in the second period but got two takedowns before the end of the period to take a 4-2 lead. He added an escape and takedown to begin the third period to push the lead to 7-2, with excited the Franklin Regional bench.

Hough’s win stopped Penn-Trafford’s momentum.

“Everyone knows what we have down below, but everyone works hard in the room,” Lebe said. “It was a good win. Penn-Trafford is going to be much improved.”

Even though Peyton Kelly got a pin for Penn-Trafford at 220, Franklin Regional junior Dylan Singleton for a first-period pin at 285 to set up the Panthers’ big comeback.

Carter Dibert (106) and Finn Solomon (113) followed with pins, and Garrett Thompson (120) scored a late takedown for an 11-2 major decision to push the Panthers lead to 31-24.

“I had one thing on my mind: go for the pin,” Singleton said. “It was so exciting. Carter and Finn followed, it was like a bowling ball rolling.”

Brett Ginther (126) stopped Franklin Regional’s run with an 8-6 win against Mario Sarnic, but pins by the Panthers two NCAA Division I commits, Zach McCann (American) at 132 and Colton Camacho (Pitt) at 138, clinched the match.

Nick Coy (Virginia) ended the night getting Penn-Trafford’s fifth pin of the match.

“We knew we had to get those two wins up top to have a realistic chance, and we didn’t get them,” Penn-Trafford coach Rich Ginther said. “Youth and inexperience hurt, but I’ll take it any day. He had every weight covered, and we stayed competitive the whole match.”

Last year, the Warriors had only seven wrestlers on the team. This year, they have some exciting young freshmen and sophomores competing.

But it was Hough to the rescue for the Panthers.

Paul Schofield is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Paul at pschofield@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Schofield_Trib.

Tags: Franklin Regional, Penn-Trafford