Newly minted Penn State heavyweight Anthony Cassar was just as dominant as the entire Nittany Lion team was against Lehigh on Sunday, thumping sixth-ranked Jordan Wood 12-3 and highlighting the Lions' 42-0 shutout of the Mountain Hawks.
At one point, Cassar deadlifted Wood high in the air before completing a double-leg takedown shot, much like Penn State deadlifted a Lehigh lineup depleted because of injuries.
The victory, Penn State's 48th straight, completed a weekend sweep of heavy lifting. The Nittany Lions scored 84 points, rang up 98 takedowns and went 19-for-20 against Bucknell and the Mountain Hawks.
The win was the 70th in the series against Lehigh, against 34 losses and three ties, and not only was it the Lions' ninth straight victory over Lehigh, it was the third time in the 108-match series that they've registered a shutout, the others coming in 1993 and 2007.
And because Sunday's match started at 197, Cassar was an early part of the onslaught instead of being a nightcap. His early appearance seemed to suit him just fine.
"I just don’t eat as much and warm up a little sooner," the winner of the day's Ridge Riley Award said when asked about wrestling in the 2-hole. "I like when the pressure’s on me but the pressure is always on in Rec Hall, so it felt good."
Cassar put the pressure on Wood from the outset with two first-period takedowns, an escape and takedown in the second and two more two-pointers in the final two minutes.
"That was pretty special the way he wrestled," Lehigh coach Pat Santoro said about Cassar. "We’ve got to make some adjustments the next time we wrestle there."
Wood could not ride Cassar, who said he worked in the offseason on getting off the bottom.
"With these big guys I just want to get out of there," he said. "I don't want to be on the bottom. So, a little bit of that and being explosive."
He was followed by Devin Schnupp's second straight win at 125, as Schnupp, now 4-3, tripped Luke Resnick 6-1 to give Penn State a 12-0 lead. He said his win at Bucknell on Friday was a confidence booster, and Sunday's victory earned him a standing ovation from the 6,529 on hand.
"It felt really good. Our fans are great. I definitely enjoy hearing from them," Schnupp said.
Overall, Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said the Lions wrestled well despite not competing a fully loaded Lehigh lineup.
"Our guys wrestled well. They were finishing the periods with some hustle and trying to finish matches on top and with takedowns," Sanderson said. "We knew they had several guys out of the lineup but I think our guys still wrestled well."
THE LIGHTWEIGHTS: Roman Bravo-Young showed off his quickness and agility by countering having his leg lifted high by Brandon Paetzell by engineering a backflip and immediately shooting a single-leg of his own and converting it to a double-leg for a score.
"I wouldn't consider that baseline defense," Sanderson said with a smile. "Yeah, Roman has a lot of athleticism … very springy, bouncy, explosive. That's not a go-to defense but the crowd enjoyed it."
Nick Lee's 10 two-pointers fell just short of earning him a technical fall; he toppled Ryan Pomrinca 23-10 and was in on a takedown shot when the final buzzer sounded.
THE MIDDLEWEIGHTS: Jerod Verkleeren got the call over Brady Berge, who wrestled Friday at Bucknell, at 149 pounds and responded with a tight 5-3 win over Lehigh's Jimmy Hoffman.
Lehigh's Josh Humphreys, who came out of redshirt status at 157 for the match, kept things close with Penn State's Jason Nolf until the third period when Nolf hooked a far cradle and flattened Humphreys at the 6:19 mark.
"Humphreys is going to be special," Santoro said about Humphreys, who had to come off redshirt status. "He’ll get better. He wants to be great."
Penn State's Vincenzo Joseph followed with a fall in 6:47 over Trey Cornish at 165, and second-ranked Mark Hall upended seventh-ranked Jordan Kutler 6-2 at 174.
"Kutler is one of the best guys in the country and I thought Mark wrestled really well," Sanderson said. "When he needed to go score, he got a little more urgency and he was able to go score."
THE HEAVYWEIGHTS: With the match starting at 197, fans got to see two of their favorites right from the outset. Bo Nickal teched out Lehigh's Jake Jakobsen 19-4 in 5:31 and gave way to the first of the day's two marquee bouts – Cassar and Wood.
Shakur Rasheed ended the match by dominating Andrew Price by an 11-2 count at 174.
Despite the weakened lineup, Santoro offered no excuses. "They have a pretty special team right now," he said about Penn State. "Sometimes we didn’t follow the game plan all the time.
"In some of the bigger matches, we didn’t attack enough. That was the difference. We kind of let the momentum of the match get away from us."
BOX SCORE
PENN STATE 42, LEHIGH 0
197: Bo Nickal, PS tech fall Jake Jakobsen 5:31 (19-4).
285: Anthony Cassar, PS maj dec Jordan Wood 12-3.
125: Devin Schnupp, PS dec Luke Resnick 6-1.
133: Roman Bravo-Young, PS maj dec Brandon Paetzell 13-5.
141: Nick Lee, PS maj dec Ryan Pomrinca 23-10.
149: Jarod Verkleeren, PS dec Jimmy Hoffman 5-3.
157: Jason Nolf, PS pin Josh Humphreys 6:19.
165: Vincenzo Joseph, PS pin Trey Cornish 6:47.
174: Mark Hall, PS dec Jordan Kutler 6-2.
184: Shakur Rasheed, PS maj dec Andrew Price 11-2.
