HYDE — The Clearfield Wrestling team suffered another tough loss, as the Bisons fell 48-19 to Cedar Cliff last night at Arthur J. Weiss Gymnasium.
\”Well, I thought there was a couple bouts where we just got beat around a little bit,\” said head wrestling coach Jeff Aveni of his team‘s performance. \”We folded because of it. That was disappointing, but then, as the match went on, we started to say hey we can wrestle with you guys. We started to scrap in some of those bouts. We have some guys who have really really improved. That showed up tonight. We have some guys who are willing to scrap. Those guys, who weren’t afraid of being physical, wrestled well. But, some of our guys still don’t like it when somebody comes out and bangs heads with us and stuff like that. Those guys struggled tonight. Overall, it wasn’t a terrible performance.\”
Cedar Cliff took the first four bouts, jumping out to a 21-0 advantage.
Colt Brian Mellott received a forfeit at a 103 points, before Ilyass Elmasaouri and Clint Morrison added falls at 112 and 125 pounds, respectively.
At 119, Holden Lowe scrapped with Christian Norris, who took Lowe down twice for a 4-2 lead after one.
In the second, Lowe escaped and posted a follow-up takedown to go up 5-4. However, Norris notched two takedowns and an escape to regain control. Lowe escaped to make the score 9-6
Norris used a third-period takedown and reversal to secure a 13-7 decision.
Anthony Schultz got the Bisons on the board at 130 pounds, where he used three takedowns, an escape and near fall points to get the 9-3 decision over Mike Ortenzio.
Colt, 135-pounder Kevin Ortenzio managed a 6-1 decision over Shawn Hall, while Bryan Ortenzio scored a fall at 140 pounds to extend Cedar Cliff’s lead to 30-3.
\”Shawn Hall had a good match in a loss,\” said Aveni. \”I thought he wrestled hard. He just didn’t have an opportunity to score there.\”
Clearfield would get back on the board at 145 pounds, with Anthony Moore pulling out a 7-5 decision.
Down by five, Moore escaped and took down Tate Moore-Jacobs, making the score 5-3 at the end of two.
After being rewarded a stall point, Moore turned Moore-Jacobs for three near fall points and the win.
At 152, Kasey Casher took a 2-0 lead into the second, where he went to work on Brooks Norris, scoring a takedown and five near fall points.
Casher continued to rack up the points in the final stanza, as the Bison, junior added a takedown and three near fall points to major Norris 14-1.
Aveni was impressed with Casher’s performance when he said, \”Kasey wrestled great. He’s one of the guys who have really turned it up. He’s come a long way in about three weeks. He’s starting to stay in good position and keeps attacking to score points. And, if you score points, you win matches.\”
Tom Heckman (160), Zach Pettis (171) and Keith Dickey (189) reeled off three consecutive falls to make the team score 48-10.
Nick Redden would halt Cedar Cliff’s rally with a 3-1 decision over Scott Burnett.
After going scoreless in the first, Redden and Burnett exchanged escapes, before Redden picked up a takedown and the win.
At heavyweight, Sean Owen needed only 53 seconds to pin Chris Arena.
Owen upped his season record to 25-6, with 16 of those wins coming by fall.
Aveni looked ahead to post-season competition when he said, \”We’re better than we were in December and better than we were in January, but we need to get a little bit better before we get to Districts. Some of these guys are really ready for the post-season and some of them aren’t. Hopefully, they’ll turn it up and we’ll be ready in two weeks.\”
Clearfield is back in action Saturday, February 23rd when the Bisons compete in the District 9 Wrestling Tournament at Clarion University\’s Waldo S. Tippin Gymnasium.
Clearfield 19 Cedar Cliff 48
103 – Brian Mellott (CC) WBFF, 0-6
112 – Andrew Spicer (C) LBF Ilyass Elmasaouri (CC), 3:07, 0-12
119 – Holden Lowe (C) LBD Christian Norris (CC), 7-13, 0-15
125 – Cody Billotte (C) LBF Clint Morrison (CC), 2:58, 0-21
130 – Anthony Schultz (C) WBD Mike Ortenzio (CC), 9-3, 3-21
135 – Shawn Hall (C) LBD Kevin Ortenzio (CC), 1-6, 3-24
140 – Andrew Haney (C) LBF Bryan Ortenzio (CC), 2:45, 3-30
145 – Anthony Moore (C) WBD Tate Moore Jacobs (CC), 7-5, 6-30
152 – Kasey Casher (C) WBMD Brooks Norris (CC), 14-1, 10-30
160 – Michael Boyce (C) LBF Tom Heckman (CC), 1:04, 10-36
171 – Jake Riglin (C) LBF Zach Pettis (CC), 4:28, 10-42
189 – Justin Barbeiri (C) LBF Keith Dickey (CC), 1:00, 10-48
215 – Nick Redden (C) WBD Scott Burnett (CC), 3-1, 13-48
285 – Sean Owen (C) WBF Chris Arena (CC), :53, 19-48
Individual Records
103-119 – Holden Lowe – 9-7
112 – Andrew Spicer – 17-13
119-125 – Cody Billotte – 3-16
125 – Jeff Smallwood – 8-13
130 – Anthony Schultz – 13-16
130 – Josh Barrett – 0-2
135 – Anthony Moore – 16-14
135 – 145 – Shawn Hall – 11-12
140 – Andrew Haney – 1-2
140 – 152 – Richie Queen – 14-14
145 – 171 – Kasey Casher – 7-16
160 – Sam Maines – 1-0
160 – Michael Boyce – 0-1
160-171 – Lee Zalno – 10-16
171-189 – Justin Barbieri – 2-9
171-189 – Jacob Riglin – 9-11
215 – Nick Redden – 15-15
285 – Sean Owen – 25-6