By PATRICK MATSINKO

pmatsinko@tnonline.com

HERSHEY – Ethan Mordaunt is wrestling like he has something to prove.

Coming off district and regional titles in back-to-back weeks, the Jim Thorpe senior had another result on his mind when he took the mat Thursday at the PIAA Championships.

“I went 0-2 here last year,” Mordaunt said of his trip to the state tournament a season ago. “People might have seen that, but I’m just ready to make a statement. I’m the same kid I was last year.”

Mordaunt’s declaration was a 16-0 (3:44) technical fall over Hopewell’s Connor Forrest (31-9, SW-6) in his 220-pound first round match at the Giant Center. Mordaunt will wrestle Southern Columbia’s Preston Zachman, who was third at the Northeast Regional tournament, in the quarters on Friday.

“I just wanted to score points and keep scoring,” said Mordaunt. “Anything can happen in this tournament. I maybe would have liked to pin, but it’s exciting.

“I’ve worked on my offense a lot this past offseason. It was my main weak point last year. I think I’ve improved immensely in that part of my game. I’m just excited.”

He showed it, pushing the pace from the opening whistle to build a 9-0 lead at the end of the first period. Mordaunt had a takedown and collected seven back points in the first period.

“I think that Ethan dominated the entire match out there,” said Olympians’ head coach Shawn Albert. “You can see he had some nerves, and that’s most important to get that out. I know he’s confident, but there’s not a single wrestler in this building that doesn’t have some nerves coming into it.

“But I thought it was a good match for him to release some of that. We talk about scoring points at this stage of the season; there are very few times where you’re going to find guys getting pinned, so he’s got to be able to score points.”

After watching Mordaunt pin his way through the regional bracket a week ago, Albert was pleased to see him take a match a little deeper and light up the scoreboard.

“I think being able to go the full six minutes, constantly scoring in every period; scoring on top, scoring on bottom, scoring in neutral, that’s going to payoff in some of these closer matches, when he’s really going to need to get a turn, or a takedown at the last second,” Albert said. “Depending on the situation, he’s going to need to score those points. “

Tamaqua’s Bronson Strouse bounced back after a first round setback, pinning Jim Thorpe’s Derek Hunter in 4:30 in his 285-pound first round consolation match. Strouse will wrestle Boiling Springs’ Damon James, who was fifth at the Southeast Regional tournament, in the second round of consolations.

“It felt great, but I also felt bad because he’s going home,” Strouse said afterward.

Hunter led 1-0 through the first period after getting an escape. Strouse tied it with an escape to start the third period and took the lead with a takedown with 58 seconds remaining before collecting the pin.

Strouse lost his first round match 4-1 in overtime to Southern Huntingdon’s Kole Winfield.

The Tamaqua junior took a 1-0 lead with an escape in the second period. Winfield countered with escape of his own in the third to tie the score at 1-1.

With neither wrestler able to generate any offense in the sudden victory portion of overtime, Winfield broke through with an escape and a takedown in the tiebreaker round to seal the win.

“I just have to get to my shots,” said Strouse. “In the first round, I had three shots, I just couldn’t finish them. He (Winfield) was a pretty tough kid.”

In addition to Hunter, the tournament also came to an end for Lehightons’s Logan Pagotto and Chris Whiteman, and Tamaqua’s Nate Wickersham in the first round of consolation matches.

Whiteman lost a 16-5 major decision to Tunkhannock’s Gavin D’Amato at 145 pounds, while Pagotto lost a 4-2 decision to Philipsburg-Osceola’s Hunter Weitoish at 152.

“You’ve got to be proud of them,” said Indians’ head coach Floyd Brown. “They’re both seniors, and their goal was to get a medal. They came up a little short, but it’s still impressive and an accomplishment for them to get here and get to this point.

“I can’t say enough about those two. Their leadership has been super all year in the room. Hopefully, the younger guys coming up now see how they led this year, and can follow in their footsteps. They were great to have in our program. Both of them were four-year starters. I can’t say enough about them. They’re been great for our program, great leaders. Now, we just hope the younger kids can emulate what they’ve done over the last four years.”

Pagotto led Weitoish 2-0 after a takedown with 43 seconds left in the first period. Three back points in the middle of the second period gave Weitoish the lead, and an escape in the third set the final score.

In the first round, Greenville’s Mason Karpinski jumped out early en route to a 15-3 major decision over Pagotto. Karpinski, the Northwest Regional runner-up, who entered 43-3, posted a 6-2 lead after the first period.

Pagotto, a state qualifier for the first time who was third last week at regionals, stayed offensive throughout. But he wasn’t able to turn the tide.

“He kept going after him, and I thought he did a nice job,” said Brown. “He was down, but he kept trying to score points. He knew he needed a big move at some point, and he was trying to position himself to hit something, and got taken down again. But he was pushing the action, which was good.”

Wickersham was pinned by Ethan Finch (Sheffield) in 5:13 in sudden victory overtime in his 170-pound consolation match. The match was tied at 4-4 before the start of the extra period.

UP NEXT … Quarterfinals and second round consolations will begin at 9 a.m. Friday, with third round consolations to follow at 11:45.