LOCAL BOXING Fitch's Sallaz in ring win

The Austintown senior scored a second round TKO over Kyle Harvey at the Buckeye Elks.
By BOB ROTH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
YOUNGSTOWN -- Saturday night at the Buckeye Elks Youth Center a pair of Austintown boxers, fighting for the Buckeye Elks, bookend an eight-bout card with standout performances.
Derick Sallaz, a Fitch High senior, opened the card with his second amateur victory, as the referee stopped the 147 pound novice three-rounder with Kyle Harvey, from the Sandusky Hourglass Boxing Club, at 1:52 of the second round.
Sallaz, who is entered in the Pittsburgh Golden Gloves, showed excellent side to side movement as he used a good right jab followed by solid left hooks which had Harvey take two standing eight counts in the second round.
Koval loses first: Chris Koval, a former Falcon who now attends YSU and is also entered in the Pittsburgh Golden Gloves, lost for the first time in six amateur fights. In a feature heavyweight match, David Polk, a bomber with a solid right from the Akron Rubber City Boxing Club, stopped Koval.
Koval came out slipping and sliding off punches and counterpunching nicely, but Polk tagged him with a right that was the best shot of the night. Koval apparently lost his legs and took a standing eight count. He survived the round and came back to outbox Polk with good counterpunching.
The judges gave the three-round decision to Polk.
Despondent with his first loss, Koval was encouraged by the crowd who gave both fighters a standing ovation when the fight was over.
His trainer, Frank West, said, "This is the best thing that could happen for Chris because he showed that he can take a punch and come back from it and the decision could have gone either way."
Other local winners: That was the only loss of the night for the Buckeye Elks stable, which, along with Sallaz's win, had victories by open 165-pounder Anthony Pietrantonio and heavyweight Joshua Harris.
Harris won with a good left jab and solid body shots over Sandusky battler Herbert Henson when the referee stopped the contest at 1:22 of round two, and in what was one of the best battles of the night, Pietrantonio, with a good left hook that bloodied John Werner's mouth, won a decision.
Another bout had women's super-lightweights Jennifer Whitman from Sandusky and Sandra Esmurdoc, from Cleveland's Thurgood Marshall PAL, trade punches throughout their three-rounder. Whitman, a superior boxer with a good left jab, won the decision.