RIDGWAY – Prior to Thursday night’s wrestling meet with the Ridgway Elkers, Curwensville’s head wrestling coach Duane Wriglesworth stated, “If we wrestle like we did on Tuesday night in our win over Redbank Valley we can stay with this team.”
Curwensville did beat Redbank Valley on Tuesday night, 35-33. It was the first win against Redbank in three years for the Golden Tide.
Take away a few late points, moves and a couple of seconds and the Golden Tide possibly could have pulled off the biggest upset of the year against the Elkers.
Ridgway, however, came through in all of the “toss-up” matches to dump the Tide 39-23 to run their overall record to 11-1. The hard luck defeat leaves the Golden Tide with a season record of 6-4.
Things started off to the liking of the Tide as Jeff Thomas, at 145, pinned Nate Dornisch in just :47 seconds to put the visitors in front 6-0.
Ridgway jumped out in front, 12-6, by getting pins at 152 and 160 which were not unexpected.
The Tide came right back with a major decision, 11-0, by their 171 sophomore, Zack Dimmick over senior Shane Munson of the Elkers. The win moved the Tide to within two, 12-10, of their hosts. Then things got interesting.
At 189 the Tide’s Jonathan Michaels, a sophomore, was more than holding his own against Ridgway’s Cody Sheasley, when the Elker senior turned Michaels to get the pin in 4:50 of the third period. Michaels, who led the entire time until the bitter ending, was actually out in front 5-4 and looked on his way to winning one those “toss-up” bouts. The win jumped the Elkers margin by eight, 18-10.
It got even more heartbreaking for Curwensville at 215 when Nathan Russell of the Tide lost a 2-1 decision to Jake Thompson in a battle of senior strong men. Thompson picked up a reversal with two seconds left in the second period and did very little before that, or after that to get the crucial win. Russell pushed the entire six minutes but could only come up with one point, an escape, in the third period against a somewhat unwilling participant in Thompson.
The win at 215 gave the Elkers a commanding 21-10 lead, which they pushed even higher in the next two bouts.
Ridgway’s Joe Chittester, at 285, picked up another pin for the Elkers, in 1:30 of the first period over Walter Koontz of Curwensville. The Elker junior ran his season record to 20-1 with the victory.
Then the lightweights took their turn as Corey Bush of Ridgway took on Greg Koptchak at 103 pounds. Bush was leading 12-2 when he turned Koptchak, picking up the fall with only four seconds left in the bout at 5:56 of the third. The pin enabled the Elkers to add an extra two points to their team total pushing the Ridgway margin to 33-10 with six bouts remaining.
The Tide would win the next four bouts starting at 112 with freshman Jake Keller pushing his record to 12-3 with a 6-2 decision over Kyle Caggiano. Keller had a first period takedown and two third period reversals to nail down the win.
Derek Brothers picked up his 14th win of the year as he dominated Slade Horner of Ridgway with a 12-0 major decision. The Tide junior is now 14-1.
Tyler Peters, at 125, and Jeff Smallwood, at 130, got the final points for Curwensville on the evening. Peters beat Jeff Slattery 5-1 and Smallwood knocked off Steven Mitchell 8-2 to make it a very respectable score of 33-23 in favor of the Elkers.
Garet Pisani, one the best grapplers in all of Pennsylvania, picked up a not so easy win at 135 over the Tide’s Brett Sutika, 6-0. The two wrestled scoreless through the first two periods before Pisani got his offense going in the final two minutes with an escape, takedown and near fall to gain the hard fought win.
Ridgway’s D.J. Skraba closed out the scoring at 140 with a 4-1 win over Curwensville’s Wes McGarry.
“Oh what could have been” echoed through the Ridgway high school gym as the Curwensville fans filed out into the bitter cold.
The Tide junior high squad beat the youngsters from Ridgway 41-28 in the opening battle of a great night of high school wrestling.
SUMMARY:
145 Jeff Thomas, C pinned Nate Dornisch, R :47 6 0
152 Sam Skraba, R pinned Kyle Kyler, C 2:55 6 6
160 Zack Zelcs, R pinned Justin Smith, C 4:43 6 12
171 Zack Dimmick, C major dec. Shane Munson, R 11-0 10 12
189 Cody Sheasley, R pinned Jonathan Michaels, C 4:50 10 18
215 Jake Thompson, R dec. Nathan Russell, C 2-1 10 21
285 Joe Chittester, R pinned Walter Koontz, C 1:30 10 27
103 Corey Bush, R pinned Greg Koptchak, C 5:56 10 33
112 Jake Keller, C dec. Kyle Caggiano, R 6-1 13 33
119 Derek Brothers, C major dec. Slade Horner, R 12-0 17 33
125 Tyler Peters, C dec. Jeff Slattery, R 5-1 20 33
130 Jeff Smallwood, C dec. Steven Mitchell, R 8-2 23 33
135 Garet Pisani, R dec. Brett Sutika, C 6-0 23 36
142 D. J. Skraba, R dec. Wes McGarry, C 4-1 23 39
