Drexel 22 East Stroudsburg 11

Warriors Wrestling Falls 22-11 at Drexel in 2008-09 Dual Opener

November 18, 2008

PHILADELPHIA – Shane Mallory, Chris Birchler and Matt Swallow won their matches to give East Stroudsburg University an early 11-4 lead, but Drexel rallied to win the final six bouts to give head coach Jack Childs his 396th career victory in the dual match opener for both schools on Tuesday night.

Childs, a 1967 graduate of East Stroudsburg and a 1995 inductee into the ESU Athletic Hall of Fame, is the winningest active coach in Division I wrestling in his 34th season at Drexel.

Mallory (197) and Birchler (285) opened the dual with major decisions, with Mallory beating Justin Sachse 22-9 and Birchler taking down Kyle Frey 12-3. Drexel got on the board with a major decision from captain Steve Mytych over Matthew Benedetti at 125 pounds before Matt Swallow, the Warriors’ captain, responded with a 9-5 decision of Justin Giani to give ESU its 11-4 lead after the 133-pound bout.

The Dragons won the final six matches, all by regular decision, with a 5-3 victory by Matt Dugan proving pivotal at 141. Dugan came back from a 3-0 deficit against ESU sophomore Matthew Rizzo and scored two near fall points with just seconds remaining to begin Drexel’s run.

Redshirt senior Joe Schick also dropped a tight decision, falling 4-2 to Robbie Robinson at 149. After Billy Haydt took a 13-6 decision over Jesse Dunn at 157, Drexel won each of the final three bouts by five points to finish the match.

Rizzo, redshirt sophomore Jeff Jacobs (165), freshman Nick Tetro (174) and freshman Trevor Salvatore (184) all made their first career starts for ESU.

Drexel won last year’s meeting 30-9 at Northampton High School in the first career contest for ESU head coach Joey Rivera, now in his second season with the Warriors.

ESU is off until Thursday, Dec. 4 with a dual at Binghamton two days before the PSAC championships, which will be held at Mercyhurst.


Drexel 22, ESU 11
197 – Shane Mallory (ESU) maj. dec. Justin Sachse, 22-9
285 – Chris Birchler (ESU) maj. dec. Kyle Frey, 12-3
125 – Steve Mytych (D) maj. dec. Matthew Benedetti, 16-4
133 – Matt Swallow (ESU) dec. Justin Giani, 9-5
141 – Matt Dugan (D) dec. Matthew Rizzo, 5-3
149 – Robbie Robinson (D) dec. Joe Schick, 4-2
157 – Billy Haydt (D) dec. Jesse Dunn, 13-6
165 – Scott Hunter (D) dec. Jeff Jacbos, 11-6
174 – Brian Stouffer (D) dec. Nick Tetro, 7-2
184 – Justin Wieller (D) dec. Trevor Salvatore, 6-1