CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Offense sells tickets. Defense wins matches. As much was true for Virginia Tech in its 27-9 Commonwealth Clash win over Virginia in Charlottesville Friday night.
The Hokies (6-3, 2-0 ACC) took eight of the 10 bouts against the Cavaliers (7-3, 1-1), using elite defense to edge out some close victories. Tech only allowed 19 points across the eight wins, an average of just 2.4 points per bout.
No. 2 Mekhi Lewis (174) moved to 9-0 on the year with an impressive win over Virginia’s No. 14 Justin McCoy. He forced a stalemate in the first period after a strong shot from McCoy to keep the score at zero before earning an escape point to start the second period.
The former national champion rode out McCoy in the final two minutes of the match to lock up the 2-0 win. Through nine dual matches this season, Lewis still has yet to give up a takedown.
No. 6 Cooper Flynn (125) earned an early takedown to take a 3-0 lead in his match, but held strong defensively through the final two periods to snag the 4-2 win over Virginia’s Kyle Montaperto. The win was his 10th of the year and fifth in a row.
No. 22 Connor Brady (165) finished with the same score but had to wait until the third period to score his bout-winning takedown. The redshirt junior powered through Virginia’s Nick Hamilton with 1:40 to wrestle to score the lone takedown and win 4-2.
Friday night’s heavyweight match was a sibling rivalry bout as No. 20 Hunter Catka took down his younger brother, Virginia’s No. 33 Ryan Catka, 8-4.
With Ryan leading 1-0 to end the second, Hunter got an escape to start the third and then lifted and threw down his little brother to grab the lead with a takedown. Following an ensuing reversal from Ryan to bring the match within two, 5-3, Hunter secured another takedown to put the match on ice.
No. 2 Caleb Henson (149) used a clutch takedown in the third period to beat Virginia’s Erik Roggie, 7-2. Leading just 3-1, he nabbed the late takedown to slam the door on Roggie.
Tech’s two bonus-point wins on the night came from TJ Stewart (184) and Clayton Ulrey (157).
Stewart bounced back from his 11-8 overtime loss to North Carolina’s No. 23 Gavin Kane in a big way, trouncing Virginia’s Griffin Gammell by technical fall, 20-5. The redshirt freshman burst out of the gates with three takedowns in the first period to lead 9-2 before adding three more in the third period to pick up his second technical fall win of his career.
Ulrey didn’t wait to score either, recording two takedowns in the first period to jump out to a 6-0 lead over Virginia’s No. 27 Dylan Cedeno. The Grantville, Pa., native collected another takedown in the second and shut down Cedeno in the third to pick up the 10-1 major decision upset victory.
No. 25 Andy Smith (197) nearly had a bonus-point victory himself, beating Virginia’s Krystian Kinsey, 10-3. After tying the match at one with an escape to start the third period, he exploded for three takedowns in the final two minutes to pick up his 12th win of the season.
Both of Virginia Tech’s losses came in bonus-point defeats.
No. 11 Sam Latona (133) fell to Virginia’s Marlon Yarbrough by major decision, 15-7. Despite beating Yarbrough 10-4 last season, he couldn’t recover after a fast start by the UVa wrestler.
A quick takedown from Yarbrough to start the match was followed by another one in the second, in addition to four near fall points. Despite Latona’s takedown in the third to cut the deficit to 12-7, Yarbrough put him away with another takedown in the final seconds of the match.
True freshman Hunter Mason got the nod at 141 for Tech on Friday night and was overpowered by Virginia’s Jack Gioffre in a technical fall loss, 18-3.
Virginia Tech, who is 2-0 in ACC play for the first time since 2020-21, returns to the mat in a week to face Duke at the Moss Arts Center at 7 p.m. ET (ACCN), before hosting George Mason on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET (ACCNX).
125: No. 6 Cooper Flynn (VT) dec. Kyle Montaperto (UVA), 4-2
133: Marlon Yarbrough (UVA) maj dec. No. 11 Sam Latona (VT), 15-7
141: Jack Gioffre (UVA) tech fall Hunter Mason (VT), 18-3
149: No. 2 Caleb Henson (VT) dec. Erik Roggie (UVA), 7-2
157: Clayton Ulrey (VT) maj dec. No. 27 Dylan Cedeno (UVA), 10-1
165: No. 22 Connor Brady (VT) dec. Nick Hamilton (UVA), 4-2
174: No. 2 Mekhi Lewis (VT) dec. No. 14 Justin McCoy (UVA), 2-0
184: TJ Stewart (VT) tech fall Griffin Gammell (UVA), 20-5 (7:00)
197: No. 25 Andy Smith (VT) dec. Krystian Kinsey (UVA), 10-3
285: No. 20 Hunter Catka (VT) dec. No. 33 Ryan Catka (UVA), 8-4
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Always fun to whoop UVA at anything. Thank you for the recap Jack. Good stuff and great writing.
I like pummeling Virginia
Fresh meat.
soft meat
Fillets
Appreciated the X following last night, also.
Where are the Commonwealth Cup standings?
https://hokiesports.com/feature/commonwealth-clash
We were pushed around in the fall sports. We are closing the gap this winter but I think UVA is gonna win this one.