Shippensburg, PA - The Raiders' Evan Ramos (197) and Derek Berberick (285) earned back-to-back pins to both end the match and complete the comeback for Shippensburg University on Wednesday against Messiah College. The later-round points helped Division II Shippensburg rally from an early 10-0 hole against the Division III Falcons.
 
"I thought we did a lot of good things tonight, a lot of things that we needed to do to get the win," Messiah head coach Bryan Brunk said. "But we have to do a lot of other things better, too. The loss is a tough pill to swallow."
 
The loss was especially unnerving considering Messiah took that 10-0 lead off a major decision from Lucas Malmberg (125) and a pin from Hunter Harris (133). Even after Shippensburg battled back to within 10-6, Larry Cannon (165) and Ben Swarr (174) picked up wins, with Swarr matching Malmberg with and extra-point major decision to widen the gap.

Harris' pin was also noteworthy considering his 16 falls is the current lead across NCAA Division I, II, and III.
 
"Those bonus points from Lucas and Ben were great to see," Brunk said, who also praised Cannon for his "domination" of Shippensburg's NCAA Qualifier from last year. "They really battled with urgency, and Hunter keeps wrestling like a beast. He's progressing fast in his bouts while at the same time finding the right time to get the fall."
 
A decision by Derek Beitz (184) put the Falcons up 20-12, but it wouldn't be enough to hold down the host Raiders.
 
"We have more work to do," Brunk commented, making it clear that most of the lineup had room for improvement. "It is noticeable to our team that we're not doing a great job of applying our training and instruction in every competition. We need to commit to making the changes that we're talking about. If we can't do that, if we can't adapt, then we may not be able to achieve some of our biggest goals.
 
"If we had wrestled the way we know we're capable of doing, then we would have won. So we need to keep pressing, and we need to remain faithful to our progression from here."
 
The No. 13-ranked Falcons will be off for 10 days before returning to the mats on Dec. 17 for a highly-anticipated match at No. 6 Johnson & Wales University.

125: Lucas Malmberg (Messiah) maj. dec. Dustin Steffenino (Shippensburg), 14-4 (0-4)
133: Hunter Harris (Messiah) pins Cole Rush (Shippensburg), 2:45 (0-10)
141: Karl Lightner (Shippensburg) dec. Lee Cassell (Messiah), 4-0 (3-10)
149: Cody Blankenship (Shippensburg) dec. Stephen Maloney (Messiah), 3-2 (6-10)
157: Mike Springer (Shippensburg) pins Josh Grossnickle (Messiah), 1:21 (12-10)
165: Larry Cannon (Messiah) dec. Adam Martz (Shippensburg), 7-2 (12-13)
174: Ben Swarr (Messiah) maj. dec. Ryan Narber (Shippensburg), 13-2 (12-17)
184: Derek Beitz (Messiah) dec. Hunter Fenk (Shippensburg), 6-1 (12-20)
197: Evan Ramos (Shippensburg) pins Victor DeFrance (Messiah), 6:32 (18-20)
285: Derek Berberick (Shippensburg) pins Dan Kiser (Messiah), 1:32 (24-20)
 

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