PUNXSUTAWNEY – After quickly trailing 12-0, the Punxsutawney Area High School wrestling squad scored 31 unanswered points on the way to a 49-30 victory over the visiting Curwensville Golden Tide Thursday night.
The Tide started the festivities with a pin at 220 pounds as junior Rick Magnuson pinned Austin Covatch in just 47 seconds. The win for Magnuson was his second of the season against no defeats.
Brad Stubbs picked up a forfeit at 285 moving Curwensville quickly out in front, 12-0.
Then the Chucks dug themselves out of their hole.
Over the next six bouts, 106 through 138 pounds, Punxsutawney pulled out three falls, a technical fall and two major decisions to go into the lead, 31-12, a lead they would not relinquish.
Trey McKenzie stopped the Chucks run with a fall at 145 by pinning Harry Batley in quick fashion, in 48 seconds to keep hopes for a Tide win still alive. McKenzie is now 5-2 on the year.
Pins at 152 and 160 for Punxsutawney put the match out of reach as the Chucks had a 43-18 margin with just three bouts remaining.
At 170, Nate Wriglesworth, a Tide senior, came out aggressively, and stayed aggressive, as he picked up a fall in the third period at the 4:13 mark over Travis Perry. For Wriglesworth the victory evened his record at 3-3.
Austin Pollick would gather in the final team points for the Golden Tide, receiving a forfeit at 182.
Curwensville head coach Duane Wriglesworth said afterwards, “I thought that there were a few toss up matches that we should have won tonight. We did have some good matches were we did wrestle well, but I was also disappointed with some of our effort in other bouts. But, overall, it just wasn’t our night.”
In the junior high match it was Curwensville easily defeating the Chucks by a margin of 60-20.
The Golden Tide, now 1-2 on the year, return to the mat on Saturday when they participate in the Coudy Duals, in Coudersport, starting at 9 am.
BOUT BY BOUT RESULTS
220 Ricky Magnuson, C, pinned Austin Covatch, P :47 6 0
285 Brad Stubbs, C, received forfeit 12 0
106 Elijah Lambiotte, P, pinned Jason Koptchak, C 1:20 12 6
113 Andrew Bullers, P, pinned Aryan Shearer, C 1:40 12 12
120 Joel Bowers, P, major dec. Tyler Mays, C 16-3 12 16
126 Kaleb Young, P, tech fall Jake Lancaster, C 15-0 12 21
132 Josh Schuckers, P, major dec. Brandon Sass, C 17-4 12 25
138 Perry Arrington, P, pinned Pat Shearer, C 2:30 12 31
145 Trey McKenzie, C, pinned Harry Batley, P :48 18 31
152 Jeff Bottenhorn, P, pinned Dakota Royer, C 2:52 18 37
160 Keegan Fischer, P, pinned Jake Stiles, C 2:52 18 43
170 Nate Wriglesworth, C pinned Travis Perry, P 4:13 24 43
182 Austin Pollick, C, received forfeit 30 43
195 Brandon Wingert, P, pinned Brad Coudriet, C 1:01 30 49
OFFICIAL: Jim McKee