Mountaineers Lose to No. 10 Pitt in Backyard Brawl

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – For the second straight season, WVU wrestling lost to a ranked Pitt team in the Backyard Brawl.

Last year the, No. 24 Panthers defeated WVU 37-3. This season, the No. 10 Panthers defeated WVU 29-6. Before last year, West Virginia had won four of the last five Backyard Brawls.

“As a whole, I think we got handled,” head coach Tim Flynn said. “There’s signs of fight and there’s a lot of improvement, we’ve just got a long way to go.”

The 29-6 loss drops WVU to an 0-3 record to start the year and Pitt moves to 3-1.

The match started tough for the Mountaineers in the 125 and 133 weight classes. Sophomore Joey Thomas lost to Louis Newell by major decision 11-1 at 125 pounds, putting WVU in an early 4-0 hole. Pitt’s Micky Phillippi beat sophomore Lucas Seibert by technical fall 20-5 at 133 pounds to give Pitt a 9-0 lead after two matches.

At 141 pounds, sophomore Caleb Rea lost to Cole Matthews 4-0.

True Freshman Liam Lusher made his WVU debut in the 149 class against Luke Kemerer. Kemerer won 10-9, but Lusher nearly came back, scoring six points in the third period. Flynn said Lusher just had more confidence in himself by the third.

“I think he went out and he didn’t really believe that he was going to win,” Flynn said. “I think if he went out like, ‘hey, I’m the man’ he would have won that match.”

Redshirt freshman Alex Hornfeck gave Taleb Rahmani a fight at 157 pounds. The match was tied at five near the end of the third period, with Hornfeck having the lead in riding time. With only 30 seconds left, Rahmani got two points on a reversal to take the match, 7-5.

Redshirt freshman Brock Godzin also made his debut for WVU at 165 pounds. His opponent was Jake Wentzel, ranked No. 11 in the weight class. Wentzel won a major decision, 11-0, giving Pitt a 22-0 lead. At 174, freshman Scott Joll lost 6-2 to Gregg Harvey and in 184 sophomore Jackson Moomau lost to Nino Bonaccorsi 13-3.

WVU’s first win of the night game in 197 with Noah Adams defeating Kellan Stout. Adams, a sophomore, had won 10 straight matches to start the year going into Thursday. He and Stout wrestled each other last year when the teams met, Stout won that meeting 5-3. This year however Admas won 8-6.

Adams said this time he was able to win in positions that Stout beat him in last season.

“I’ve got a lot of coaches and a lot of good teammates that push me,” Adams said. “They help me get positions that I lost last year and I was able to win them this year.”

The Mountaineers finished the night with a win in heavyweight as senior Brandon Ngati defeated Cole Rickert 10-3.

West Virginia’s next match is against Buffalo on Sunday, Dec. 8 at WVU Coliseum at 1 p.m.