RIDGWAY – The Curwensville Area High School wrestling team reached the .500 mark on the year with a sweet win over Ridgway, 45-18, Thursday night on the Elkers’ wrestling surface.
A win over long time District 9 power Ridgway is always a plus, even in the down year that the Elkers are currently enduring.
Curwensville is now 5-5 on the 2012-13 season while Ridgway drops to 3-10 under first year head coach Dave Fordoski.
And even though the Tide received four forfeits for 24 of their points, they still came out on top in bouts wrestled, 21-18.
Golden Tide head coach Duane Wriglesworth was all smiles afterwards, saying, “I am very, very proud of these guys. We battled from top to bottom tonight, being very aggressive the whole way through our lineup. I couldn’t be more proud of the effort we put forth from this entire squad.”
The first bout was perhaps the best of the evening’s activities, as Cortland Smith of Ridgway was awarded an escape with just .5 of a second left in the third period at 195 to eke out a win over Brad Coudriet of the Tide. Coudriet scored five points in the final two minutes with three escapes and a late takedown to knot the match at 6-6 before the heartbreaking ending.
Then A. J. Bloom of the Tide, in only his fourth match of the year, pinned fellow sophomore Troy Quail of the Elkers at 220 pounds in 4:37 to give Curwensville the lead at 6-3. A lead that the Golden Tide would build upon and not relinquish.
Curwensville picked up three straight forfeits, at 285, 106 and 113 to bolt out in front 24-3.
Sophomore Sam Bressler of Curwensville moved up to 120 were he looked solid in defeating Elker J. P. Cerroni 4-1 with a takedown in the first period and a reversal in the second.
After the 120 bout the Tide were in front 27-6, looking confident and wrestling strong.
A forfeit at 132, and a Brandon Sass decision at 138 had the Tide followers happy they made the trip north.
Sass edged out a hard fought 6-5 win over John Wildnauer giving the Golden Tide a huge 36-6 lead.
Ridgway would need five pins in the remaining five bouts to even the score. It did not happen.
In a featured bout, at 145, Tide junior Trey McKenzie lost a 5-3 battle to veteran Elker Zac McKnight. McKnight would get a third period takedown to pull out the victory.
Ridgway, now without a chance of victory, got a pin at 152 before Zach Tibbens of Curwensville took the air out of the Ridgway faithful with a 30 second fall over D.J. Pontious at 160.
Nathan Wriglesworth of Curwensville lost a tough match, wrestled well by both combatants, at 170, 2-0 to Dalton Sheasley who made a second period reversal stand up.
In the final match-up to see which team actually won the wrestled bouts, Austin Pollick, a Curwensville senior, defeated Ryan Geyer 5-2 at 182 pounds.
Coach Wriglesworth closed with, “We moved some kids up tonight and it worked out for us in the end. We have come a long way this year, and as I said earlier, I am very, very proud of these kids.”
The junior high match went to Ridgway as it defeated Curwensville by a score of 63-34 in the evening’s first match.
Curwensville will participate in the Clearfield Duals on Saturday with wrestling set to begin at 8:30 am.
Teams entered, with records as of January 16, are as follows:
Pool A: Port Allegany (10-0), General McLane (6-0), Peters Twp. (6-0), Sharpsville (10-4) and Curwensville
(5-5).
Pool B: West Branch (15-1), Valley (4-1), Pleasant Valley (9-3), Montoursville (7-4) and Clearfield (2-3).
Each team will wrestle the other four teams in its pool, and then a team from the other pool according to record. The championship finals are to start at 7:00 pm.
Pleasant Valley is the reigning champion.
BOUT BY BOUT RESULTS
195 Cortland Smith, R dec. Brad Coudriet, C 7-6 0 3
220 A. J. Bloom, C pinned Troy Quail, R 4:37 6 3
285 Brad Stubbs, C won by forfeit 12 3
106 Jason Koptchak, C won by forfeit 18 3
113 Ayran Shearer, C won by forfeit 24 3
120 Sam Bressler, C dec. J. P. Cerroni, R 4-1 27 3
126 Brett Himes, R dec. Tyler Mays, C 6-2 27 6
132 Jake Lancaster, C won by forfeit 33 6
138 Brandon Sass, C dec John Wildnauer, R 6-5 36 6
145 Zac McKnight, R dec. Trey McKenzie, C 5-3 36 9
152 Mike Popson, R pinned Dakota Royer, C 2:27 36 15
160 Zach Tibbens, C pinned D. J. Pontious, R :30 42 15
170 Dalton Sheasley, R dec. Nathan Wriglesworth, C 2-0 42 18
182 Austin Pollick, C dec Ryan Geyer, R 5-2 45 18
OFFICIAL: Randy Main
Golden Tide Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 12/08 | @ Mountaineer Tourney | 6th | 0 – 0 |
| 12/11 | @ West Branch | 13 – 64 | 0 – 1 |
| 12/13 | BROCKWAY | 48 – 32 | 1 – 1 |
| 01/03 | @ Punxsutawney | 30 – 49 | 1 – 2 |
| 01/05 | @ Coudersport Duals | ||
| vs. Lewisburg | 21 – 60 | 1 – 3 | |
| vs. Coudersport | 51 – 26 | 2 – 3 | |
| vs. Maplewood | 24 – 51 | 2 – 4 | |
| vs. Cameron County | 42 – 40 | 3 – 4 | |
| vs. Sheffield | 60 – 24 | 4 – 4 | |
| 01/10 | @ Redbank Valley | 15 – 57 | 4 – 5 |
| 01/17 | @ Ridgway | 45 – 18 | 5 – 5 |
| 01/19 | @ Clearfield Duals |