Andy Causa ’81
Career Record: 53-9
Tournament Championships: Top Hat
1981 – 132 lbs.: District Runner-Up, Regional Champ, State Third (35-3)
1980 – 126/132 lbs.: (17-6)
1979 – 126 lbs.: (1-0)
Andy Causa finally got a postseason shot as a senior, winning a Regional title and narrowly missed making the state final before earning a bronze medal as the captain of Easton’s “Magnificent Seven” team that won a state championship.
Causa made his varsity debut as a sophomore, pinning Joe Thibault (Whitehall) with three seconds left on the clock.
With Brian Liska graduated, Causa slotted in as the starter at 126 pounds to start his junior season. He was the runner-up at the Reilly Invitational, with a semifinal win over future Voorhees (NJ) coach Bob Angstadt (North Hunterdon) before falling to three-time state champ Jay Patterson (Wilkes-Barre Meyers) in the finals. In January, Causa held off Bethlehem Catholic state finalist Vince Stravino, 5-4 in win over the War Hawks. To close the regular season, Causa, trailing 6-0, pinned Kelly Happel (Phillipsburg) as Easton won six of the first seven bouts in a East Penn clinching victory over the Stateliners. For the postseason, Causa found himself with one of his toughest matches of the year in the Easton wrestling room, as classmate Pete Stoelzl, 14-1-2 on the season, cut down to 126 to challenge Causa for the postseason spot in the Easton lineup. A loss in the practice room forced Causa up to 132 pounds, while Stoelzl won District and Regional titles and took fourth in the state. Despite being up a weight class, Causa earned the top seed at 14-4. After a first round pin, Causa suffered the upset of the tournament when Joe Thibault (Whitehall), took Causa down in the first period and let the score hold up in a 3-2 win. Also getting upset in quarters was William Allen star and future NCAA qualifier Don Schleicher, who faced Causa in their first wrestle-back. Once again, Schleicher scored a first period takedown that held up for a 3-1 win, shockingly ending Causa’s season.
Causa came back with a vengeance as a senior. He started the year off at 138 pounds, piling up bonus points in all of his December dual matches. At Top Hat, Causa was one of five Easton finalists, Causa’s head-to-head bout with returning state qualifier Greg Auman (Shikellamy) was the pivotal match-up in the team race, with Easton barely leading the Braves going into the finals. After a scoreless first, both wrestlers rode out their periods in regulation to go 0-0 in to overtime. The scoreless tie remained after a minute on their feet. In tiebreakers, Causa finally broke the deadlock with an escape, and held Auman down for a 1-0 win that catapulted Easton to a tournament championship. It also got coaches Phil Lockuff and Dave Crowell to schedule a dual between the two teams to truly establish the best team in Pennsylvania in 1981. Causa stayed hot with a finals run at the Pat Reilly Invitational before losing his first match up with Gary Kaschak (Hazleton) 9-6. In January, Causa beat South Central regional champ Craig Hetrick (Lower Dauphin) 7-4. When Easton traveled to Shikellamy for their 1981 “Super Dual” Causa’s rematch with Greg Auman was billed as the swing bout of the dual. With Easton leading 13-9, Auman and Causa took the mat to the biggest roar of the night. Like the first match, they were 0-0 after one period. Unlike their first match, Auman escaped from Causa in the second period, scoring his first point in nine minutes of action against Causa. Auman clamped a hard ride on Causa for almost the entire third period, and it looked as though Easton was going to have to dig out of a major hole after Auman turned the tables in this match up. But dramatically, Causa reversed Auman to his back in the final ten seconds, narrowly missing the pin but earning a stunning 5-1 win over Auman, a six point team score swing in a matter of seconds, that proved to be the difference in Easton’s 22-21 triumph. Causa capped his regular season with an 8-1 win over Kevin Stocker (Phillipsburg) as Easton completed an undefeated regular season with their second straight East Penn championship. Causa cut to 132 for the postseason, where he and Gary Kaschak (Hazleton) were the two local favorites. Causa dominated his way to finals, with two pins and a 10-2 major decision to set up a rematch of his Reilly Invitational final with Kaschak. In the finals, Kaschak took Causa down twice, then held off the Easton star over the final minute for a 6-5 victory to become Hazleton’s first ever D11 champ. At Northeast Regionals, Causa opened the tournament with a 15-3 major in quarters, then hammered Kevin Stephen (Emmaus) 16-5 in semifinals. On the other side, Auman and Kaschak wrestled in a thriller in semis, with Auman knocking off Kaschak to set up Causa-Auman III in the Northeast Regional final. Unlike their first two bouts, Causa got to his offense early and often, taking down Auman twice plus adding a reversal in a 6-3 win. Causa was one of six Red Rovers to make the Regional finals and was one of their two champions. At the state tournament, Causa, Kaschak, Sean Braddock (North Allegheny), and Glenn Moser (Downingtown) were tabbed as the pre-tournament favorites. Causa looked the part in his first round, majoring Mark Weimer (Somerset) then upped the ante with a first period pin of Carl Meyer (Springfield-Delco) to clinch a medal and earn one of four Easton slots in semis. Meanwhile, Gary Kaschak went through two regional champs, Tom Allen (Erie Cathedral Prep) and Criag Hetrick (Lower Dauphin) to set up their third match of the year. And round three was a war. In a wild, back and forth first two periods, Kaschak led Causa 7-5 when Causa took him down with a minute twenty left in the match to knot things at seven. With Causa desperately trying to hang on, he was called for a locked hands penalty with thirty seconds left to fall behind 8-7. He cut Kaschak loose to try and score a match tying takedown, but could not find one and he took his third loss of the season, all to Kaschak, and barely missed a state finals trip. Kaschak finished as the runner-up, while Causa beat Tom Allen (Erie Cathedral Prep) 7-3 on the backside, then handled Sean Braddock (North Allegheny) to earn a bronze medal. After the season, Causa represented District 11 in the Dapper Dan opening match, pitting the D11 and WPIAL All Stars.
History of Easton Wrestling 