Kiski Area’s Morlacci reaches WPIAL semifinals, 100-win milestone
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Saturday, March 5, 2022 | 10:13 AM
Kiski’s Enzo Morlacci pins Penn Trafford’s Wesley Stull during the 3AAA WPIAL-PIAA South West Regional 160-pound quarterfinal on Friday, March. 4, 2022 at Canon-McMillan High School.
Franklin Regional’s Finn Soloman beats Kiski Area’s Ethan Connor during the 3AAA WPIAL-PIAA South West Regional 145-pound quarterfinal on Friday, March. 4, 2022 at Canon-McMillan High School.
Hempfield’s Lucas Kapusta beats Highlands Jrake Burford during the 3AAA WPIAL-PIAA South West Regional 145-pound quarterfinal on Friday, March. 4, 2022 at Canon-McMillan High School.
Enzo Morlacci is giving up wrestling after the season. The Kiski Area senior recently de-committed from Lehigh to pursue a film career.
Morlacci has formed his own business, a venture in which he believes he will excel.
Friday at his final Class 3A WPIAL and PIAA Southwest Regional Championship at Canon-McMillan, Morlacci celebrated two victories to advance to the semifinals at 11:30 a.m. Saturday against West Allegheny sophomore Shawn Taylor.
Morlacci collected two pins on Day 1 of the tournament — in 41 seconds against Butler junior Matt Zinkhann and 46 seconds against Penn-Trafford senior Wesley Stull — in the 160-pound weight class.
His win against Ott was the 100th of his career.
“I feel that’s a goal for every high school wrestler,” Morlacci said. “It’s always something I wanted to achieve and being able to do it at the end of the year is awesome.”
Morlacci will get a chance to avenge an earlier loss this season to Taylor. He said since he made the decision to de-commit, he has been wrestling well.
“I’m having fun,” Morlacci said. “I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. I’m going to put everything out there. I’ve been setting up recently. There are a lot of people I’m gunning for.”
Morlacci said he is going to focus on his film company. He specializes in social media, and he has a YouTube channel (EnzoEverything). He recently did a video with Pitt wide receiver Isaiah Stewart.
“I had the opportunity to meet a lot of good connections,” Morlacci said. “I’m going to try and take it as far as I can. I truly believe I have something special. Connecting with people is my gift.”
He will be joined in the semifinals by Kiski Area senior heavyweight Stone Joseph and Plum senior Vincent Citrano at 126 pounds.
Joseph pinned North Hills junior Lucas Palermo in 35 seconds and edged Trinity junior Ty Banco, seeded fourth, 3-2. He will face the No. 1 seed in the semifinals: Greensburg Salem senior Billy McChesney.
Citrano collected a pin of South Fayette junior Jacob Potts in Round 1 and then defeated North Allegheny junior Nathan Monteparte, 9-3. He will face Connellsville senior Chad Ozias in the semifinals.
The top four wrestlers in each weight class will qualify for the PIAA championship March 10-12 at Giant Center in Hershey.
The wrestlers who reached the semifinals need to win only one match to qualify for states.
Kiski Area had four wrestlers in the consolation round, Highlands has four, Plum three and Fox Chapel two still alive for third or fourth place.
Paul Schofield is a TribLive reporter covering high school and college sports and local golf. He joined the Trib in 1995 after spending 15 years at the Daily Courier in Connellsville, where he served as sports editor for 14 years. He can be reached at pschofield@triblive.com.
Tags: Kiski Area
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