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PIAA Girls Basketball: Good week of practice leads to good things for Dallas in state opener

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They can&rsquo;t all be legends like Rocky Bonomo and win three state wrestling championships.
				Sometimes, they won&rsquo;t even have a chance to celebrate as briefly as Josh Bonomo, Rocky&rsquo;s son, who pulled off a mild surprise by winning a first-round match.
				Some of them don&rsquo;t win at all.
				But if every competitor at the state wrestling championships met difficult defeats with as much dignity and grace as Lake-Lehman&rsquo;s Zach Stuart, the PIAA would be holding a Parade of Champions for a week.
				&ldquo;Yeah, it sucks I didn&rsquo;t get the result I wanted,&rdquo; Stuart, a junior, said after his first state appearance ended abruptly with two losses on opening day. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t fulfill my goal of getting to that podium.
				&ldquo;But it kind of makes me re-set for next year.&rdquo;
				He had big plans for this year.
				Stuart surged into the 138-pound state field carrying a 27-9 record, and as a two-time District 2 champion. He finished second at the Northeast Regional last weekend while earning a spot at states.
				He went to Hershey wanted to rock the cradle.
				Instead, Stuart got caught in a cradle.
				He was pinned with 27 seconds remaining in the second period of his consolation bout Thursday at the Giant Center, ending his PIAA debut on the opening day of the tournament.
				&ldquo;I feel bad for him,&rdquo; Lake-Lehman coach Jay Konigus said. &ldquo;He was wrestling good. He got caught in a little cradle there. That&rsquo;s the way it goes.
				&ldquo;Sometimes you&rsquo;re the bug, sometimes you&rsquo;re the windshield.&rdquo;
				It&rsquo;ll bug Stuart that he didn&rsquo;t have a chance to advance for awhile.
				&ldquo;It stings for him right now,&rdquo; Konigus said in the moments after Stuart suffered his sudden pin. &ldquo;It stings, and it&rsquo;s stinging me. You want him to win so bad.&rdquo;
				But when he looks through the windshield of life, the view for Stuart is pretty bright.
				Even after his only day at states turned so bleak.
				During a 5-0 loss in the first round, Stuart appeared on his way to picking up points that weren&rsquo;t awarded &mdash; valuable points that would have made the match much closer and made Stuart less desperate at the end.
				He thought he had a reversal, or at least back points, to tie the match at 2-2 against Ayden Miller of Cambridge Springs &mdash; but instead was kept off the scoreboard and forced to try hitting all-or-nothing moves that cost him in the final period.
				Stuart could have whined or complained about it.
				Instead, he took it all in stride.
				&ldquo;I do think there were a couple of points in the match where I thought I scored some back points,&rdquo; Stuart said. &ldquo;(Second) period, I kind of had his head with my legs. But it&rsquo;s not really up to me. It&rsquo;s more of the ref&rsquo;s decision, and he didn&rsquo;t see it the way I saw it.
				&ldquo;It happens.&rdquo;
				It so happened Stuart was leading Ian Sherlock of North Bradford, 6-2, in the first minute of the second period of a consolation bracket opener of the double-elimination tournament. Stuart used a reversal to tie the match at 2-2 and then picked up two back points to go up 4-2 by the end of the first period and converted a takedown to build a four-point lead in the second.
				&ldquo;I was really just letting it fly,&rdquo; Stuart said.
				Pretty soon afterward, his hopes of standing on the state medal stand Saturday went flying away when Sherlock picked up the pin in 3:33.
				&ldquo;I just got caught,&rdquo; Stuart said.
				It&rsquo;s not so much about getting knocked down, though.
				It&rsquo;s how you get up.
				And Stuart has pulled himself up off the mat plenty over the last two years. Always with class.
				This is a kid who seemed a sure bet to make states as a sophomore last year, until his mother passed away and he had to withdraw from regionals to deal with her death.
				This is a wrestler so steady, confident and consistent that his teammates can&rsquo;t help but cheer for him.
				This is a guy worth watching, not only because of his success on the mat, but because of his attitude away from it.
				&ldquo;Last year, he would have been here (at states),&rdquo; Konigus said. &ldquo;He had some horrible circumstances that happened for him. So this is good, for him to get here, get is feet wet at the state tournament and come back strong next year.
				&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a pretty resilient kid.&rdquo;
				He&rsquo;s a pretty good wrestler, too.
				And chances are, this setback at states won&rsquo;t stand in the way of Zach Stuart standing tall as a champion.
				With or without a state medal.

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