It was not the day Salisbury’s John Samy wanted his season to end Saturday at the iconic place known as the Mecca to Schuylkill County basketball fanatics, but turned into a PIAA Super Regional Wrestling venue for Saturday’s Class 2A tournament.

Martz Hall hosted a first-ever wrestling event all because of this crazy time in people’s lives. Usually, this step en route to a state gold medal was on the floor of Hershey’s Giant Center.

Times have changed, hopefully temporarily for the athletes. And next time around Samy might work his way to a podium to be draped with a medal. Saturday it was two and out for Samy, ending a stellar sophomore season that saw the Falcon 132-pounder earn district and regional silver medals.

Samy had tough matchup right from the get-go, taking on Midd-West’s Conner Heckman in the quarterfinal round. He came up short in losing 5-1, thrusting him into the consolation bracket.

In the consolation match, Newport’s Danny Capozzoli throwing up a roadblock just as Samy seemed ready to win the bout.

After a scoreless first period, Samy looked poised and confident charging in front 3-0, Heckman picked up an escape point near periods end. That didn’t seem to faze Samy. The tough Falcon grappler used several moves to build a 7-2 advantage.

There was under 1:40 to go in the match when Capozzoli quickly came to life with a takedown and a four-point near fall with under 35 seconds left in the bout. He took an 8-7 lead and ended the breakout season for Samy, who missed his freshman postseason with an injury.

“(John) has worked so hard and to lose the match was crushing for all of us,” said Salisbury head coach Eric Snyder. “You can’t fault him; we wanted him to stay aggressive, and he was. That one that definitely got away.”