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Lottery Summary for the week of Feb. 26, 2017

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St. Patrick’s Parade in Pittston was a chilly one this year

<p>WILLIAMSPORT &#8212; Colin Pasone, with a small gash on the bridge of his nose, walked off the podium with his silver medal dangling around his neck.</p><p>The Meyers senior definitely knows he&#8217;s ready for next weekend in Hershey.</p><p>For the second straight year, Pasone left Williamsport&#8217;s Magic Dome with a silver medal at the PIAA Class 2A Northeast Regional tournament. After a quick pin in the semifinals, Pasone gave up a takedown with one minute left in the 120-pound championship and was defeated 4-3 by Benton&#8217;s Cole Rhone.</p><p>&#8220;That match shows where I could be,&#8221; Pasone said. &#8220;Hopefully, next week, I can come out with a victory. This is the exact match you want before states. You want to be prepared to wrestle the best because that&#8217;s what you are going to see in Hershey. I&#8217;m ready to go all six minutes hard.&#8221;</p><p>A total of five Wyoming Valley Conference wrestlers are heading to Chocolate Town. Joining Pasone will be Lehman&#8217;s Bob Long (120), R.J. Driscoll (132) and Bob Lipski (145) along with Hanover Area&#8217;s D.J. Erickson (138).</p><p>The Lackawanna League will also send five to states: Scranton Prep&#8217;s Bruce Parola (170) and Ivan Balavage (195), Honesdale&#8217;s Alec Dragos (170), Valley View&#8217;s Brett Uhrin (138) and Western Wayne&#8217;s Cole Fuller (220).</p><p>Yes, Pasone knows there&#8217;s work left to do. Yet that glimmer of hope is that he was right there with one of the state gold-medal contenders.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a good loss. Cole is ranked No. 1 in the state. Even though I lost, it&#8217;s still a good match,&#8221; Pasone said.</p><p>The Meyers senior took a 2-0 lead in the championship, capitalizing off a sloppy Rhone shot. He led 3-2 early in the third period before the Benton junior pulled off the takedown at the edge of the mat with one minute left. Rhone rode out Pasone for the remainder of the period to hold on to the 4-3 win.</p><p>For the rest of the Wyoming Valley Conference wrestlers heading to states, each brings unique perspective.</p><p>In Driscoll, you have a 2015 state qualifier that missed last year&#8217;s postseason with an injury.</p><p>In Erickson, you find a first-time regional qualifier that managed to survive a difficult journey to Williamsport.</p><p>With Lipski, it&#8217;s the tale of a two-time District 2 champ that now gets to taste state glory.</p><p>And for Long, well, it&#8217;s about getting that win on the second day of regionals.</p><p>&#8220;I honestly feel that anyone can win at any time,&#8221; Long said. &#8220;You just never know what&#8217;s going to happen. It&#8217;s cool to go as a sophomore, but I feel that there is always room for improvement.&#8221;</p><p>The state-clinching win for Driscoll was even more dramatic. That&#8217;s because it was his 100th career victory.</p><p>It wasn&#8217;t easy. He made a first-period takedown hold up in a 3-1 victory in his first match over Mifflinburg&#8217;s Trevor Bingaman. And in the consolation semifinals, after being ridden out the entire second period, Driscoll hit a big move late in the third to pin Towanda&#8217;s DJ Knolles.</p><p>In the third-place bout, Driscoll connected on a single-leg takedown at the third-period buzzer to force overtime with Line Mountain&#8217;s Collin Klinger and earn a 7-4 victory in OT.</p><p>&#8220;For me, this is like a sense of renewal,&#8221; Driscoll said. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been working so hard to get back there, and I&#8217;m just so overwhelmed by the moment. I just had to keep wrestling and keep composed.&#8221;</p><p>Erickson, the Hanover Area 30-match sophomore winner, needed a late four-point move to erase a 3-2 deficit in a victory over Wyalusing&#8217;s Luke Yonkin to even get a chance to qualify for states.</p><p>And in that match, an explosive bout with Line Mountain&#8217;s Caleb Shaffer, the Hawkeye took advantage of a sloppy Shaffer shot for a five-point move as the seconds ticked away in a 13-5 major decision.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s crazy. It really is because I didn&#8217;t even make it down here last year,&#8221; said Erickson, who injury defaulted out of his third-place match. &#8220;That fourth-place at districts last year was a heartbreaker and a motivator for this season.</p><p>&#8220;I knew Shaffer was going to try to take me down with some power stuff. I had to try to counter and defend it. When I got him on his back, I knew I had it.&#8221;</p><p>Lipski was as dominating as you can be in the wrestlebacks.</p><p>He won his first match by injury default over Honesdale&#8217;s Joe Rutledge, but the Black Knight had a big lead early and had the Hornet stuck on his back before the bout was stopped. In the consolation semifinals, he didn&#8217;t allow a single point to Athens&#8217; 33-match winner Gage Cannavino in a 3-0 victory.</p><p>&#8220;I feel like I didn&#8217;t wrestle well on the first day, and I was kind of down on myself because I knew I was better than that,&#8221; said Lipski, who won by forfeit in his third-place bout. &#8220;I knew that I had to push it and wrestle harder. If you give it your all, you can&#8217;t be mad if you lose. I was confident heading into today.&#8221;</p><p>Long&#8217;s day started just as it did in last week&#8217;s District 2 Class 2A tournament at the Armory, where he was pinned in the first period by Pasone. The Lehman sophomore didn&#8217;t waste much time in his consolation semifinal, just 55 seconds, sticking Montgomery&#8217;s Lucas Drick to the Resilite.</p><p>Long was one of two Wyoming Valley Conference semifinalists entering the second day of the regional tournament.</p><p>&#8220;Pasone is such a solid wrestler, and I got caught again,&#8221; Long said. &#8220;I just went out with the attitude that I had to win. The feeling of his shoulders hitting the mat and the ref slapping the mat. It was great.&#8221;</p><p><ins>For other sports stories, <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/category/sports" target="_blank">click here</a>.</ins></p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Driscoll </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_driscoll.jpg</photo0><caption0>Driscoll </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Fox</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @TLsports</p></shirttailMeta></div>

5 WVC Class 2A wrestlers qualify for states