Seidenberger, Unionville pin down first place in showcase of area’s best.

Indians senior leads the way as Unionville brings home the hardware  By Dave Conard, Sports Editor UnionvilleTimes.com

Unionville's Perry Hopkins was 5-0 in the Pottsgrove challenge.

LOWER POTTSGROVE—Ask any great golfer if they would rather have to drop a ten foot putt to win a tournament or be watching from the comfort of the club house as other tried to equal mark that they set, most would choose the later.

On Friday night Unionville set up that scenario by recording nine pin falls in its last two matches in the Pottsgrove Challenge, an eight team round robin tournament featuring some of the best squads in District One.

Following a grueling match with Conestoga, in which senior Scott Seidenberger claimed his 77^th career win, which placed him tenth on the Unionville all time wins list, the Indians found them selves deadlocked with the Pioneers with two matches to play.

“It’s all about the pins,” said Unionville head coach Chris Matz, in his 11^th season at the helm. “We have to focus on getting pin falls in our last two matches. We have gotten Wissahickon, North Penn and now Conestoga out of the way, now we have to keep wrestling hard and get pins.”

Scott Seidenberger captures his 77th career win against Conestoga.

It would have been easy for most kids to rest on their laurels after reaching a goal that had been set going into the season, but that would not be senior captain Scott Seidenberger’s style.

Instead, the 120-pound student council president was already preparing for win number 78 as he faced of against Avon Grove in the final round for the Indians (6-2 overall, 5-1 league) and thinking about the post season.

“It’s almost surreal to have my name mentioned with guys like Joe Bonaduce, Zander Adams, Nick Fisher and Mason Popham, that is some pretty elite company. We have a great chance to do something special this year as a team and tournament like these are a great test. I have one more match tonight and I need to get as many points as I can for the team”

“I have had the pleasure of seeing the top four on the win list perform in my time here at Unionville,” added Matz. “They each had something inside driving them and Scott is right there with his work ethic and intensity.”

Through out the two-weekend tournament in which Unionville battled some of the best the district had to offer including Wissahickon senior Brennan Weiss, who made Trojans history with his 100^th career, win Friday night.

Ironically it was Weiss and his Wissy teammates, who arrived two hours late as their team bus had been driven into a ditch on the way the Pottsgrove High School and has to be towed out, that helped the Indians claim a share of the title.

This will come as news to even to the Unionville players and coaches as they were recuperating on the bus en route back to Kennett Square, when their new best friend Wissahickon heavy weight Kevin Yannes held on to claim a 3-2 win over Conestoga’s Robbie Campbell in the final bout of the evening to give the Trojans a share of the team championship with 148 points.

Following a “huge win by Weiss, the Trojans entered the final two minutes of the tournament trailing Conestoga by a count of 146.5 to 146l, with Unionville in the clubhouse so to speak and Campbell Knotted with Yannes at two pints each through the first two rounds.

Yannes was able to record an escape to snag the victory and the two points awarded for a win in the round robin format in which a pin pall garnered four points, a major decision scored three points and a technical fall put 3.5 points in teams scoring column.

Next up for Unionville is the Interboro Invitational, before taking the momentum and confidence generated by its’ Ches-Mont league runner up finish into the post-season fray.

“We came out of no where this season,” said Seidneberger, who recorded a much needed pin fall in his last match of the tourney. “No body expected us to compete for the league championship, we may have lost to Rustin, but they are very good and finishing second in the league is more than any one thought possible to start the year.”

“The last time we won the league title was 1990,” said Matz. “We obviously wanted first, but we also knew that Rustin was a very senior latent team. Next year I see us as the front runners right out of the gate.”

Pottsgrove Falcon Challenge team results

Unionville                     148

Wissahickon                 148

North Penn                   146.5

Conestoga                    146.5

Avon Grove                 130

Pottsgrove                      81.5

Lower Moreland            57

Penn Wood                  18

Unionville's Jonny Hartz puts Avon Grove's Matt Capenter to the mat in action Friday night

Unionville individual results for tournament (both weekends)

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