Fitch’s Powell notches 250th victory

January 23, 2014 at 12:07a.m.

By Tim Cleveland

AUSTINTOWN

Things were not looking good Wednesday night for Austintown Fitch.

In their first quarterfinal match in the state dual-match tournament, the Falcons trailed Kenston by 20 points as it looked like it was going to be an early night.

But Fitch caught fire, winning the last five matches — including pins in the final two — to rally for a 31-30 victory and give Coach Brett Powell his 250th career dual-match win.

“That’s a number that’s out there and you don’t ever know if you’re going to get to it,” he said. “You don’t even plan on it. It’s the history of the kids at this school. I was part of it, but it’s all the kids I’ve had through the years.

“I got a bunch of texts today from kids that I haven’t seen in 15, 20 years. I told them they’re a part of it.”

Trailing 30-19, Fitch (13-5) got pins from 220-pounder Jake Franks (15-8) and heavyweight Ron Shadd (14-7) in a combined 1:35 to earn the win.

“They had to dig deep,” Powell said. “Those guys at Kenston have a big tradition up there, that suburban Cleveland wrestling. That was a sledgehammer first match for us to run into those guys. I was very impressed with how our guys dug deep and pulled it out at the end.

“We haven’t been down that far all season. It put a lot of pressure on those guys, but this sport brings out the competitiveness in you, it brings out who’s got a backbone and who doesn’t.”

Shadd and Franks both knew the match was riding on them before they took the mat.

“We were talking over there, it was me, Jake Franks and Tony Behanna,” Shadd said. “We were like, ‘We have to win this. We need at least two pins.’ Tony got the nice win (a 7-2 decision), Jake got his pin. I was like, I have to go out there and do it. If I don’t do it, I failed the team.”

“I knew I needed a pin for my team,” Franks said. “Me and Shadd looked at each other, I said, ‘I wasn’t going to let my team down. I went out there, full of adrenaline, and just took it to him the whole time.”

Things did not go nearly as well for the Falcons in their second quarterfinal match, against Aurora.

Fitch led by 11 points with just four matches left, but Aurora won out to gain a 33-29 victory.

Aurora advanced with a 45-25 win earlier Wednesday against Boardman. The Spartans (3-11) trailed 24-12 but rallied for a 25-24 lead. It was all downhill from there for Boardman, which has had a tough season with not many wrestlers with experience.

“I’ve got football players who’ve never wrestled before,” Spartans coach Dominic Mancini said. “These are guys that I respect a lot for coming out and helping us out, but they’re a long way away from being competitive in wrestling.”

Sophomore Mario Graziani (17-4), who placed fifth at the Top Gun tournament last weekend, helped get Boardman back in the match with a pin in 2:27 over Connor Bizjak at 145 pounds.

“I knew my team needed a pin because we were down,” Graziani said. “I wanted to work on some stuff before the (Josh) Hephner tournament, so I quickly pinned him.”

With his 28th season as Fitch coach winding down, Powell said he’s proud not only about gaining 250 career wins, but also the way the program has been conducted over the years.

“I’ve been doing it a long time,” he said. “I could’ve been a guy that went out and wanted to wrestle a ton of dual meets. I know tournaments are what get our kids ready for the state tournament. This was never something I planned to do as a boy. It just kind of crept up on me.

“I’ll never forget 250 just because of how crazy it was.”

Fitch will host the annual Josh Hephner Memorial tournament on Friday and Saturday.