It wasn’t the way the PIAA tournament was supposed to go for Emmaus senior Lucas Schaf. Coming off a medal performance at last year’s state tournament, the expectations were to equal or surpass his eighth-place finish from a year ago.

But the reality of any PIAA wrestling championship is that you never know what’s going to happen and for Schaf (132), his road and career at Emmaus ended with a 3-1 overtime loss to North Penn’s Ryan Vulakh in the second round of consolations during day two of AAA action.

Vulakh scored a last second takedown near the edge of the mat to keep his tournament alive, while killing Schaf’s simultaneously.

“It’s always tough, especially when you go out before a medal round,” said Emmaus head coach Jeff Arbushitis. “There’s not much you can do about it. I think the duration of the season and the caliber of the competition took its toll on him. He’s hurting in about every joint and he just started a little flat and it cost us. I didn’t think he had the same foot speed and angles that he’s had throughout the season.”

Schaf (41-6) was unable to muster much offense against Vulakh, as he trailed 1-0 deep into the third period before he eventually pried himself out from bottom with 20 seconds left in the match to even the bout.

Overtime saw the two wrestlers battle for position, until Vulakh finally got in deep on a leg to produce the winning score.

After opening the tournament with an 8-3 preliminary victory over Tucker Brough of Big Spring, Schaf’s offense dissipated, losing his first round bout to Zach Hartman of Belle Vernon 7-0 before succumbing to Vulakh.

“This one is a little bit tougher to deal with because he had all the tools,” said Arbushitis of Schaf. “He was not overmatched. Some kids come out here and they’re just happy to be in Hershey. That’s not the case with Lucas and that’s what makes this more difficult.”

Therein lies the makeup of the PIAA wrestling tournament, where the 20 best wrestlers from each weight class congregate for one final rodeo. Arbushitis knows that sometimes you need a little bit more than skill to win at this level and unfortunately for Schaf, that wasn’t on his side last weekend in Hershey.

“Sometimes the state champion isn’t the best wrestler of the bracket,” Arbushitis said. “It’s the one who had the best draw and the most breaks and I’ve been on that side. You got 20 kids out here that let it all fly. It’s tough.”