Wrestling: Bonus points lift PSU to 37-6 win over Rutgers

Penn State lost two of its first three matches against Rutgers Friday night in its first return to Rec Hall in more than a month. From there on out, however, the Nittany Lions were triumphant, picking up seven consecutive wins to earn its seventh dual-meet victory of the season, 37-6.

Five of PSU's eight wins on the night came with bonus points, including in the opening 125-pound match. That's when freshman Nick Suriano first fired up the the 6,000-plus fans in attendance with a 16-2 major decision over Brandon Paetzell.

After losing the next two, Penn State went on a tear. When it was done, PSU won the takedown battle 30-9 and earned 13 bonus total bonus points. It had also picked up its 24th consecutive dual meet victory, a streak that dates back to the 2014-15 season.

Here are BWI's three takeaways from the match:

1) Rutgers holds little back, comes out and stays aggressive

- It began with the opening bout and it continued until the final one, but Friday night's dual between two Big Ten rivals was a bit more chippy than most. Between some extra head taps, a push here, a shove there - the Scarlet Knights aimed to make their presence known throughout the night.

"They're tough kids and they wrestle with a lot of energy and passion and they wrestled the whole match with that same fire," PSU head coach Cael Sanderson said. "So I thought they did a nice job."

In part it helped them jump out to an early 6-4 lead after three matches, but from there - starting with undefeated and top-ranked Zain Retherford at 149 - Penn State reset the tone and didn't lose another one.

"When you have Zain coming up, that’s a confidence booster," Sanderson added. "And then (Jason) Nolf and this group of guys. We lost a couple matches early but sometimes it just depends where the matchups are. Rutgers is a good team."

From 149 on, that's where Rutgers head coach Scott Goodale began to notice a difference in the effectiveness of his team's approach.

"We came here with the mindset that we wanted to compete," he said, "but the reality is you get against a certain animal and you have to match his intensity."

2) Penn State 3-1 in battles of ranked-vs.-ranked

- Heading into the dual meet, eyes were fixed on four specific weight classes: 141, 149, 157 and 184. Each was a matchup of ranked wrestler vs. ranked wrestler. When they were done, Penn State had won three of them, each by either fall or technical fall.

At 149, No. 1 Retherford tore off five straight takedowns in the first two periods before pinning No. 14 Ken Theobold in 5 minutes and 33 seconds.

No. 1 Jason Nolf (157) followed up his teammates with a tech fall in 4:09. Nolf surrendered a first-period takedown to No. 16 John Van Brill, before scoring 20 consecutive points.

At 184, No. 2 Bo Nickal fought for the majority of the first period in order to secure a single-leg takedown to go up 2-0. At the start of the second, he reversed the control of No. 14 Nicholas Gravina before picking him up and returning him to the mat on his back. He held them there for nearly a minute before the pin was called in 4:27. Nickal's outcome put the dual score out of reach of Rutgers for good.

At 141, however, No. 12 Jimmy Gulibon fell to No. 6 Anthony Ashnault for Rutgers' second and last win on the evening.

Ashnault scored two early takedowns in the first period, but from there a valiant effort from Gulibon kept the match close. The PSU redshirt senior had Ashnault on skates late in the third period, forcing a stall warning, but he was unable to secure the takedown.

Against a formidable opponent such as Ashnault, Sanderson was pleased with Gulibon's resilience and maintains confidence in him going forward, despite Gulibon now sporting a 7-6 record on the season.

"We were happy. He fought the whole time," Sanderson said. "He got a little overaggressive and got countered (in) a couple positions. Ashnault is a tough kid, but we'll take that overaggressiveness any day over the opposite. Jimmy's attitude is good and he's going to keep plugging away. We believe in him. We believe that he can win and that he can score big points in duals, in Big Tens and in nationals, so we just have to keep pumping him up."

3) Weight in check, Joseph steadily improving throughout freshman season

- Redshirt freshman Vincenzo Joseph (165) is now on a nine-match win streak, and his last two have come by a combined score of 39-10.

Against fellow freshman Willie Scott of Rutgers, Joseph put on a takedown clinic, scoring with a fireman's carry and a blast double-leg to pick up a total of 8 near-fall points. The match was called short with more than two minutes left to wrestle once Joseph secured the technical fall, 19-3.

Sanderson said he has seen Joseph become more confident with his leg attacks and also become more comfortable with his mat wrestling. Perhaps more important, however, he's settling into the weight class after having management challenges as a true freshman.

The comfort of that is now manifesting itself onto the mat.

"Really, I think it's just him doing a better job with his weight," Sanderson said. "His weight is great right now. He's a tough kid so he's always going to wrestle hard, but he is a lot more solid when he does a lot better job with his weight and that's what he's been doing lately."

No. 2 Penn State 37, No. 21 Rutgers 6

January 13, 2017 – Rec Hall – University Park, Pa.

125: No. 3 Nick Suriano PSU maj. dec. Brandon Paetzell RU, 16-2 4-0

133: Scott DelVecchio RU dec. George Carpenter PSU, 11-4 4-3

141: No. 6 Anthony Ashnault RU dec. No. 12 Jimmy Gulibon PSU, 4-1 4-6

149: No. 1 Zain Retherford PSU pinned No. 14 Ken Theobold RU, WBF (5:33) 10-6

157: No. 1 Jason Nolf PSU tech fall No. 16 John Van Brill RU, 22-4 (TF; 4:09) 15-6

165: No. 4 Vincenzo Joseph PSU tech fall Willie Scott RU, 19-3 (TF; 4:55) 20-6

174: No. 14 Geno Morelli PSU dec. Phillip Bakuckas RU, 5-3 23-6

184: No. 2 Bo Nickal PSU pinned No. 14 Nicholas Gravina RU, WBF (4:22) 29-6

197: No. 11 Matt McCutcheon PSU dec. Matthew Correnti RU, 4-3 32-6

285: No. 5 Nick Nevills PSU tech fall Randy Normandia RU, 24-9 (TF; 6:57) 37-6

Attendance: 6,605 (32nd straight Rec Hall sell out)

Records: Penn State 7-0, 3-0 B1G; Rutgers 7-2, 2-1 B1G

Up Next for Penn State: at No. 3 Iowa, Friday, Jan. 20, 9 p.m. Eastern (BTN live)