HERSHEY, Pa. -- Shady Side Academy's Matthew Cunningham wasn't going to look past an opponent standing between him and being given the opportunity to cap his decorated high school career with an elusive PIAA title.

But even if he had considered the possibility of doing so, seconds into his 171-pound PIAA Class AA semifinal match against Lake Lehman's Shane Stark Friday at Giant Center, that became impossible.

A four-time WPIAL champion, Cunningham's eye was scratched moments after the opening whistle, but he persevered to defeat Stark, 3-0, to advance to a PIAA championship match for the second consecutive year.

"I never experienced anything like that," Cunningham said after receiving treatment on his red and swollen eye after the match. "I couldn't see anything, it was hard to concentrate. It kind of threw me off my game a bit.

"It was a really awkward situation, but I just had to push through. ... It's wrestling."

Cunningham was one of four WPIAL wrestlers to win semifinal matches in the Friday evening session. Each will wrestle for a PIAA title today in the Class AA finals.

Cunningham and Indians teammate Frank Martellotti are familiar names, and each will wrestle in their second PIAA championship match. But the WPIAL also will have some new blood competing for a PIAA title.

South Fayette's Nick Carr (145 pounds) and Charleroi freshman Cody Wiercioch (152 pounds) also won semifinal matches.

"I can't even really explain it," Carr said after an impressive 11-4 win against Phillip Racciato of Pen Argyl. "Man, it's probably one of the greatest feelings I've ever had in my life. All the training I've been doing for years and all I ever thought about was being in a state final. I didn't think it would ever come, and now it has."

Wiercioch has been dominant in the tournament thus far, winning his three matches by a combined score of 25-2 -- including a 10-0 win against Mike Testen of Athens in the semifinals to improve to 37-1 in his career. He is one of only two freshmen who will wrestle for a PIAA Class AA title today and, if he wins, it could be historic.

Since the first PIAA championships were staged in 1938, only once has a freshman won a title in such a high weight class (Terry Williams of Bald Eagle-Nittany in 1977 at 155 pounds). No other freshman has won one at higher than 130 pounds.

There were only two other freshmen who weighed more than 135 pounds who even qualified for the PIAA tournament this year.

"I had no idea I'd come this far," Wiercoich said. "I would have been just happy coming to states [had he been asked] at the beginning of the year."

Martellotti, the 2007 champion at 103 pounds who finished third each of the past two years, beat Pen Argyl freshman Mikey Racciato, 9-8, in a 130-pound semifinal.

"This feels good; it's what I've been waiting for for three years, to get back to the finals," said Martellotti, who will become the 16th WPIAL wrestler to place four times at PIAAs. "[The semifinals] has been my roadblock."

In addition to the four finalists, the WPIAL has clinched 12 other Class AA place-winners.

Two Benton wrestlers knocked WPIAL participants out in consecutive semifinal matches on the same mat.

A three-time WPIAL champion, Shady Side Academy junior Geoff Alexander lost, 3-0, in a 119-pound semifinal match to Michael Rhone, and Burrell's 125-pound Dave Makara lost, 5-2, to Coltin Fought.

In Class AAA, 13 WPIAL wrestlers -- including two each from Canon-McMillan, Derry and West Allegheny -- will participate in the semifinals today.

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