CURWENSVILLE – The Redbank Valley high school wrestling team took 10 of 14 bouts at Curwensville’s Patton Hall on i’s way to a 52-22 win over the Golden Tide on Thursday night.
With the win the Bulldogs improved to 6-2 on the season while Curwensville is now at 5-4.
Redbank Valley jumped out to a 10-0 edge with a major decision at 120 pounds by Dawson Wilson and then a forfeit at 126 for Tanner Altobelli.
Altobelli, defending District 9 champion at 126, is now 8-0 for the season.
Curwensville sophomore Dylan Meyers provided some excitement on parent night for the Golden Tide with a solid 11-1 major decision over Scott Drenning at 132.
Myers utilized a big second period to pick up the win with seven points coming on a takedown and two near falls that put the Tide on the scoreboard.
Leading 10-4, the Bulldogs picked up back to back falls at 138 from John Tibbs and then at 145 from Jake Hopper.
With the Tide now trailing 22-4 the Curwensville faithful were looking forward to seeing senior standout Shae Bloom come out at 152 and work his magic. Unfortunately the Bulldog brass thought it best to forfeit, thus giving up the automatic six team points.
For Bloom, now 11-1, it was his and other senior teammates last chance to wrestle before their home crowd.
At 160, Redbank Valley increased its lead to 28-10 with a pin from Curtis Mohney.
Tristen Bressler of the Tide lost a close one at 170, 5-3 to Devin Schimp, who came up with a two point near fall and an escape in the final period to earn the win.
Ben Junod, a senior for the Golden Tide, drew his team closer, 31-16, with a fall at 182 in 3:52 over Scott Toth of the Bulldogs.
Junod was ahead 5-1 at the time of the pin.
The Tide’s Kaleb Witherite, wrestling at 195, had to default 23 seconds into his bout, as the junior re-injured his right shoulder giving Redbank Valley a 37-16 bulge.
Hunter Lancaster put the final points on the board for Curwensville with an impressive fall at 220, pinning Devon Bowser in just 54 seconds, the quickest fall of the night.
The Bulldogs won the last three bouts of the evening with a pin at 285 as Brylee Shumaker remained unbeaten at 12-0.
After picking up a forfeit at 106 Redbank Valley sent out senior Ryan Kube to mix it up with unbeaten Tide freshman Blake Passarelli at 113 in the final bout.
In what was the most exciting match of the festivities, Kube, now 10-3, took a 4-1 lead after one period with two takedowns.
Passarelli, now 11-1, didn’t go down easily, even after trailing 7-3 after two periods.
The Tide freshman rallied for an escape and a takedown in the final two minutes but came up just short, 8-6.
Dean Swatsworth, Tide head coach spoke afterwards, saying, “I thought we could have done better than we did. We are always going to wrestle hard but it just didn’t turn out like I would have liked.”
Speaking about some of his wrestlers, Swatsworth commented, “Being parent night, and the last home match for us, I was hoping all the seniors would get a shot to wrestle. That wasn’t the case for Shae (Bloom) as Redbank decided to forfeit. And I liked how Ben (Junod) wrestled well tonight, and all year for us so far. I am anxious to watch him the rest of the year.”
Two other Tide wrestlers received praise from their head coach, as Swatsworth stated, “ I don’t want to forget the effort by Meyers (Dylan) and Hunter (Lancaster). I thought both wrestled very well for us this evening.”
Redbank Valley won a close junior high meet over the Golden Tide 36-34 in the evening’s first match.
Curwensville returns to the wrestling mat Tuesday with a road trip to Clarion to battle the Bobcats.
BOUT BY BOUT RESULTS
120 Dawson Wilson, RV major dec Seth Woolcock, Curw 9-0 0 4
126 Tanner Altobelli, RV won by forfeit 0 10
132 Dylan Meyers, Curw major dec Scott Drenning, RV 11-1 4 10
138 John Tibbs, RV pinned Logan Charles, Curw 5:38 4 16
145 Jake Hopper, RV pinned Nick Hecei, Curw 2:36 4 22
152 Shae Bloom, Curw won by forfeit 10 22
160 Curtis Mohney, RV pinned Mason Lancaster, Curw 5:03 10 28
170 Devin Schimp, RV dec Tristen Bressler, Curw 5-3 10 31
182 Ben Junod, Curw pinned Scott Toth, RV 3:52 16 31
195 Logan Minich, RV won by injury default Kaleb Witherite, Curw :23 16 37
220 Hunter Lancaster, Curw pinned Devin Bowser, RV :54 22 37
285 Brylee Shumaker, RV pinned James Lee, Curw 2:07 22 43
106 Hunter Martz, RV won by forfeit 22 49
113 Ryan Kube, RV dec Blake Passarelli, Curw 8-6 22 52
REFEREE: Nick Sipes
Golden Tide Scoreboard:
Date Opponent Score Record
12/05 Mountaineer Tourney @ PO 110 pts. 6th
12/17 RIDGWAY 38 – 42 0 – 1
12/19 @ Redbank Valley Duals
vs. Keystone Oaks 45 – 33 1 – 1
vs. Oswayo Valley 66 – 17 2 – 1
vs. Slippery Rock 48 – 30 3 – 1
vs. Marion Center 28 – 37 3 – 2
vs. Smethport 45 – 15 4 – 2
12/22 WEST BRANCH 21 – 52 4 – 3
01/05 PUNXSUTAWNEY 46 – 25 5 – 3
01/07 REDBANK VALLEY 22 – 52 5 – 4
01/12 @ Clarion
01/22 @ Glendale
01/23 @ Clearfield Duals
01/26 @ Brookville
01/28 @ Mo Valley
01/29 & 30 Fred Bell Tourney @ Grove City
02/04 @ Cameron County
02/09 @ Johnsonburg
02/11 @ Brockway
02/26 & 27 District 9 AA Champs @Clfd HS
03/04 & 05 Northwest Regionals @ Sharon
03/10-03/12 PIAA States @ Hershey
