Stillo's impressive win earns him the Weaver Award.

Friday, January 21, 2005

By BRIAN FORTNER

The Express-Times

PHILLIPSBURG -- The Phillipsburg Stateliners held no misconceptions about winning the war against Easton when the rivals squared off Thursday night in an independent wrestling showdown at The Pit.

The Red Rovers, the No. 1 team in The Express-Times region, simply had too many weapons in their arsenal.

Phillipsburg's goal was to collect as many small victories as possible.

No victory was bigger for the Stateliners than Brandon Stillo's 5-4 decision over Josh Oliver at 130 pounds.

Stillo (13-1) escaped with 24 seconds remaining in the bout to break a 4-4 tie and give him the victory -- one of several upsets P'burg would score on the night.

The win gave the 'Liners a 15-11 lead at the time and earned Stillo the Brad Weaver Memorial Award, presented by The Express-Times to the meet's outstanding wrestler.

"It was an awesome feeling," said Stillo, who entered the match ranked third in the region at 130 behind Oliver and Nazareth's top-ranked sophomore Tim Darling. "You don't get too many chances to go up against a kid like (Oliver). I couldn't ask for anything more, except for a team victory."

The heavily-favored Red Rovers (9-0) battled back to post a 39-18 victory, their seventh straight over P'burg, and extend their series lead to 55-13 all time.

Oliver (24-2) was a PIAA Class AAA state runner-up at 112 last year as a junior.

"Brandon is really coming into his own," Phillipsburg coach Rick Thompson said. "He had a big win Saturday at Southern and is starting to turn it on."

Stillo, a returning District 1 and Region 1 champion, defeated Rob Hickman 1-0 in Phillipsburg's 29-27 loss to Southern Regional on Saturday.

Hickman defeated Stillo 4-3 in the 125-pound pre-quarterfinal round of last year's state tournament.

On Thursday, Stillo and Oliver battled to a scoreless tie after one period before trading reversals in the second with Stillo leading 4-2 heading into the final period.

Oliver chose the neutral position to start the third and appeared to have Stillo in trouble. But Stillo battled off his back and out of bounds before referee Chip Castner could signal back points.

"I was looking for the referee to start counting and I kept telling myself not to relax," Stillo said. "I was able to fight out of bounds and come back and get the win."

"He (Stillo) almost blew it there in the third," Thompson said. "You can't put a game plan together against a kid like Oliver. You have to stay in his face and be aggressive. Not only Stillo, but I thought (Jon) Gregory or (Chris) Norrell could have won the (Weaver) award as well. But they're juniors and Brandon's a senior."

Gregory pulled the other huge upset, knocking off Jordan Oliver, Josh's brother, 4-3, at 103. Jordan Oliver entered the meet ranked No. 2 in the region with Gregory at No. 6.

Norrell scored a takedown with two seconds left on the clock to defeat Braylin Williams, 5-4, at 145.

Williams beat Norrell 2-1 last season in the Rovers' 59-5 victory at the 25th Street Gym.

"Coach Thompson told us before the match that there was no pressure on us that everybody in the gym was expecting us to roll over and die," Stillo said. "We wanted people to know that P'burg wrestling is not dead."