NP's Brian Wagner, Robbie Elsea and Gordon Wagner move on, too

NEW CASTLE — For the first time in a long time, Josh Farrell had a bona fide battle on his hands.

The Greenfield-Central senior and Cathedral’s Vinny Corsaro were tied 4-4 in the third period of their semistate championship match Saturday at New Castle.

In nine sectional, regional and semistate matches leading up to Saturday’s final, Farrell, a 152-pounder, registered seven technical falls by a total score of 156-44 and had two pins.

One of the few close matches the entire season for Farrell (44-0) was a 4-3 win over Corsaro during the holiday tourney at Connersville.

Saturday, Farrell began the third period on bottom, earned an escape for a one-point lead and controlled the match the rest of the way to enter the State Finals as a No. 1 seed.

“I kind of started off a little slower than I wanted to, but you have to look at the big picture,” said Farrell after winning his second straight semistate championship. “I knew that I wasn’t going to take him down 10 times in this match, so when I took shots, I needed to score. I only scored one, but I got in deep on two or three.”

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