Brock Snider spent part of Tuesday morning watching a video.
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No, it wasn't Groundhog Day.
But the video he watched helped him avoid a groundhog day moment of his own, and helped his Solanco teammates move into the quarterfinals of the District Three Class AAA team wrestling tournament.
Snider dumped Governor Mifflin's Roman Sarangoulis 7-4 at 145, taking a counted-on victory from the Mustangs' column.
It was a key win in what became a 34-27 first-round decision for the Golden Mules, Tuesday night in Quarryville.
With the win, Solanco (13-0) advances to meet Cedar Cliff, a 37-30 winner Tuesday night over Elizabethtown. The match, at Cedar Cliff, begins at 7 p.m.
Snider (19-14) had wrestled Sarangoulis in the fifth-place match at the Penn Manor holiday tournament, with Sarangoulis (8-11) prevailing, 5-3, in overtime.
Flash forward to Tuesday morning. "I'm doing our end-of-the-year video, Snider said, "and I just happened to come up to that match today.
"It brought back a few memories. I wanted that one pretty bad."
It showed.
The two wrestlers sparred through a scoreless first period, until Snider drove a single-leg shot, and Sarangoulis, to the mat with two seconds left.
Snider scored a sweet double in the second period to go up 4-1, then battled out of a Sarangoulis tilt in the third, giving up 2 back points, but gaining an escape, before clinching the win on a single-to-double with 30 seconds left.
"I don't think he was ready for me tonight," said Snider. "I had a pretty good mindset that he was going down.
"I think the whole team came in pretty focused," he added. "We wanted this."
The night began at 112 pounds as Solanco forfeited to Mifflin's Kenny Arentz (14-4).
Mifflin (12-8) gave the six right back, forfeiting to Wink Charles (23-11) at 119, and sent Kody Frank out to face Hans Herr.
Frank (11-5) countered two Herr shots, scoring takedowns, and added a first-period tilt to go up 6-1 going into the third period.
Herr (17-15) reversed late, but could not gain a pinning combination, and fell, 6-3.
It was Mifflin's last hurrah for a while as the Mules swept the next five weights.
"What had to happen for us tonight was, between 130 and 145, we had to win one of those matches," observed Mustangs coach Ralph Voit. "And we lost all four of them."
Voit took the big step of sending his returning district runnerup at 119, Kyle Demain, out to face Solanco's returning district bronze medalist at 125, Dan Neff.
Neff (31-2) demolished Demain (15-5), taking him down six times in a 14-5 major decision. All Demain's points came on gifts: four letups and a false start point.
Jordan Hastings (27-7) stopped Keith Stednitz (14-10), 6-4 at 135, giving up an escape and takedown late to make the match closer than it was.
Likewise, Joe Welk (26-6) went up 5-0 on Marcus Johnson, midway through their 140-pound bout, before Johnson reversed out of a Welk cradle to get back in the match.
But Welk held Johnson (16-9) in a cradle for the last 1:20 of the match before Johnson escaped at the buzzer to make it 5-3.
Down 19-9 going into 152, Voit could not afford to send Mike Shermot out to face Connor Moran.
Moran (32-5) pinned Haydn Curtis (3-9), leaving Shermot to match against Cole Martin.
It almost blew up on Voit and Shermot as Martin (15-17), improving each time out, took a 4-3 lead into the closing moments of the second period.
Shermot (14-4) got a takedown late in the second, then held off Martin's cradle attempt the last 20 seconds.
Mifflin forfeited to Jesiah Deibler (21-10) at 171, putting Solanco up 31-18 and leaving Mifflin in perilous straits.
Louie Acampora (18-3) pinned Joe Forren for his 13th fall of the year, and Tyler Weisman (9-7) stopped Steve Lam (16-14), 5-2 at 215, scoring two takedowns in the last 1:23.
That left it on the broad — and healing — shoulders of John Martin.
Missing the first half of the year with a shoulder injury, Martin (11-4) had been slowly rounding back into wrestling shape and a wrestling mindset.
"At the beginining, it was kind of hard," he said. "But I'm getting back into it now."
Holding a 58-pound weight advantage on Derek Goldsborough (11-6), Mifflin's nominal 215-pounder, Martin took bottom at the start of the third period of a 0-0 match.
He hit a sit-turn-stand with 73 seconds to go, scoring the winning escape in a 1-0 victory that clinched the night for the Mules.
"I didn't know that," Martin said. "I just had to go out and give it my all, no matter what."
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