By Mark Walters
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA-Coming out of Penn State's historic Rec Hall Sunday afternoon on his way to Hofstra's Coach USA bus, Ben Clymer couldn't help but smile. It wasn't obvious that the freshman just lost a tough bout to Penn State's 15th-ranked Phil Bomberger 5-4 at 184. On top of that, it certainly didn't matter that Bomberger's win gave Penn State a 12-7 edge over the Pride with four bouts to go.
As rapper TI put it, Clymer had "the swagger of a college kid" as he came out into the cold Pennsylvania air on his phone, looking for his parents.
"How'd ya like that?" he said with a smile.
It's not something you would expect to see from a kid that lost, especially a freshman with such heavy expectations, but it had to have been hard to not be happy after unranked Hofstra went into a hostile environment and beat the 7th-ranked Nittany Lions 18-15 on their own mat.
"It's awesome," Clymer said. "It's not about individual effort par say, but as a team getting to where we want to be and that's competing for a national title."
Clymer was down 5-2 late in the final period and his takedown with 20 seconds left was too little too late.
"I know I have a lot to work on, but other guys stepped up which is what we need."
Freshman Steve Bonanno redefined stepping up.
Going into his bout-the penultimate of the match-the Pride trailed Penn State 15-11, needing a win at 125 to set up Lou Ruggirello at 133 to decide the match.
Bonanno found himself down 4-2 after the first period, and despite a second-period takedown, he trailed Penn State's Brad Pataky 6-4 going into the final period. An escape cut his deficit to one with 1:45 to wrestle, and in the final 20 seconds Pataky got called for stalling, tying it 6-6. A near-Pataky takedown potentially put the crowd into a frenzy, but it was called off, setting up sudden-death overtime.
Bonanno didn't waste any time as he took down Pataky seconds into the extra period to pull Hofstra within a point of Penn State. Bonanno pointed to the crowd as he took off his headgear.
"Going into the match everyone knew I was a big underdog," Bonanno said. "Coming into Penn State we were underdogs. If I won the match I knew we'd be in contention to win with Lou coming in."
Admitting to being nervous, the freshman went to assistant coach Joe Dubuque during warm-ups for counseling.
"I told him, 'Hey, you deserve to be out here,'" Dubuque said. "You gotta believe that you deserve to be out here and you deserve to wrestle these guys."
When Bonanno came off the mat, Dubuque appeared all the wiser.
"I wanted that match to be on my shoulders," Bonanno said. "I wanted it in the worst way and it came to show."
His win pulled Hofstra within a point of the Nittany Lions, 15-14. There were fans among Rec Hall's 3,205 in attendance that conceded the match at that point. They knew what Ruggirello was capable of, and Lou delivered at the most crucial of times.
Having pinned his five previous opponents, Ruggirello wrestled a bit timidly-scoring no points in the second period-against Tim Haas at 133 to close out the win for the Pride.
"I was confident there, I saw Steve step it up and I knew I had to get it done," Ruggirello said of scoring the match-clinching points with his 9-0 major decision.
"It was hard to get to my bars today," Ruggirello said. "I didn't want to get too amped up and do something stupid, so I knew to wrestle solid; don't go out there and be wild and end up gettin' caught with something."
But as close as the match was at 18-15, it could have gone a little more in Hofstra's favor. Alton Lucas was upset at 174 by Quentin Wright. Tied at 2-2 going into the final period, Lucas took a one-point lead with 1:31 to wrestle, but in the final seconds Wright scored a dramatic takedown.
"When you have your returning All-American, don't get me wrong he wrestled a tough kid, but that definitely hurts a little bit," head coach Tom Shifflet said of Lucas' loss.
"You gotta go out there as an individual, and when you're out there you don't wanna lose, you wanna go out there and get your hand raised."
That win gave Penn State a 9-7 advantage over the Pride, and was a serious blow to the visitors as the home crowd roared with elation. Lucas was supposed to see 18th-ranked David Erwin, but Erwin has been injured.
"I would shoot and he would try to funk me, and that just got in my head and I just shut down. I stopped wrestling like I should," Lucas said of not being on the attack as he usually is.
Noticeably disappointed with his performance, the senior was optimistic for the rest of the season.
"Losses are the best thing. Now I know what I need to work on, so I'm just gonna go forward from there. I don't think I'll have another loss in my column."
After Clymer's loss made it 12-7 in Penn State's favor and nearly out of reach for Hofstra, Joe Fagiano recorded five takedowns against Andrew Hale at 197, including three in the final period to get the 14-6 major decision and make it a one-point match, 12-11.
At heavyweight, freshman Jordan Enck lost 4-2 to an overpowering Cameron Wade. Enck simply couldn't get the leverage he needed, and Penn State went up 15-11, setting up the dramatic finish provided by Bonanno and Ruggirello.
The Pride also got wins from Justin Accordino, who recorded a 12-4 major decision over Frank Molinaro at 141, and Ryan Patrovich, who beat Mark Friend 9-4 at 165.
Contrarily, the Pride dropped two tough bouts at 149 when PJ Gillespie lost 10-7 to the No. 2-ranked wrestler in the nation, Bubba Jenkins, and at 157 as Jonny Bonilla-Bowman fell to Dan Vallimont, ranked 3rd, 11-8. The two bouts saw Gillespie and Bonilla-Bowman struggle early, and come storming back, only to run out of time.
"We showed today that we're in pretty good shape," Shifflet said. "A lot of those matches depended on momentum. A lot of situations their guys were wearing down, and we were trying to take advantage of it, and some of the matches we ran out of time. If there was another extra minute at 157 we woulda won that match. Even at heavyweight I think we were wearing 'em down."
Shifflet was proud of his young team after a big win, and he's excited about what he believes is a bright future for the Pride.
"With such a young team, five freshmen in the lineup, it shows that we've got a team," Shifflet said. "We've got a good team."
Hofstra improves to 2-0 on the season. As of November 18, Hofstra sat at 16th in the USA Today/InterMat/NWCA Division I rankings. Penn State fell to 14th. The Pride head to Columbia, Missouri this weekend to take on the 5th-ranked Tigers Saturday, before wrestling in the Missouri Open Sunday.