CURWENSVILLE – Despite receiving four forfeits, along with a fall and a technical fall, the Curwensville Golden Tide wrestling team dropped a 42-38 decision Thursday night at Patton Hall to the Ridgway Elkers.
Visiting Ridgway won the last three bouts, two by pins and a forfeit to get its second victory of the year against two losses.
Tide head wrestling coach Dean Swatsworth commented afterwards, “Some guys that we didn’t expect to step up tonight did so. We have lost a few wrestlers to injuries, etc. since the Philipsburg-Osceola tournament, but we just need to get into the wrestling room and work hard to get better.”
The four Tide that picked up forfeits were Shae Bloom at 152, Jeff Harvey at 170, Ben Junod at 182 and Kaleb Witherite at 190.
After Hunter Lancaster at 220 pinned the Elkers’ Hunter Kos in just 52 seconds, the Golden Tide were off and sailing away with a 30-12 margin.
Then Ridgway started to chip away, getting a fall at heavyweight and a forfeit at 106 pounds to inch closer at 30-24.
Freshman Blake Passarelli, at 113, improved to 4-0 on the season with a tough 5-2 decision over Bryce Barclay to put the Tide up by nine, 33-24.
Passarelli utilized a takedown and a two-point near fall in the third period to pull out the win.
Curwensville grew the margin even bigger, 38-24, after senior Seth Woolcock, wrestling at 120, won by a technical fall over Ridgway’s Luke Tomaski, 19-4.
It was four near-falls by Woolcock that gave him the upper hand, as he evened his season record to 2-2.
Ridgway would win the final three bouts with pins at 126 and 132 by twins Luke and Logen McClain and a match winning forfeit at 138 by Drew Baumgratz.
Those 18 unanswered points put the Elkers on top for the win.
Swatsworth talked about what his squad needs, “We just have got to get better, plain and simple. And we need more mat time because this was our first action since the P.O. tourney (12/5). A lot of our guys are wrestling high right now, in part to the extended football season, so we will work on that.”
Five of the six falls on the evening were in the first period.
The Curwensville junior high squad topped Ridgway in the evenings first match, 48-21.
On Saturday the Golden Tide, 0-1, will wrestle at the Redbank Valley Christmas Tournament.
RESULTS
145 Nate Wolff, Ridg pinned Mason Lancaster, Curw 3:31 0 6
152 Shae Bloom, Curw received Forfeit 6 6
160 Jonathan Francis, Ridg pinned Tristen Bressler, Curw 1:08 6 12
170 Jeff Harvey, Curw received Forfeit 12 12
182 Ben Junod, Curw received Forfeit 18 12
195 Kaleb Wtherite, Curw received Forfeit 24 12
220 Hunter Lancaster, Curw pinned Hunter Kos, Ridg :51 30 12
285 Colton McClain, Ridg pinned James Lee, Curw 1:32 30 18
106 Kyle Bush, Ridg received Forfeit 30 24
113 Blake Passarelli, Curw dec Bryce Barclay, Ridg 5-2 33 24
120 Seth Woolcock, Curw tech fall Luke Tomaski, Ridg 19-4 38 24
126 Luke McClain, Ridg pinned Dylan Meyers, Curw 1:44 38 30
132 Logen McClain, Ridg pinned Ethan Collins, Curw :52 38 36
138 Drew Baumgratz, Ridg received Forfeit 38 42
REFEREE: Dick Wood