HYDE — The 0-2 Clearfield Bison wrestling team desperately needed a win when the Central Dragons invaded the Arthur J. Weis Gymnasium on Tuesday evening, and they got just that – slaying the Dragons 45-30 in a back-and-forth affair.
Central, seeing their first action of the year, jumped out to a 9-0 lead after the first two bouts.
At 195, Cameron Norris’ first period five-point move proved to be the difference in his 8-3 win over Clearfield’s Steven Sawyer.
Clearfield 220 pounder Hunter Bumbarger lived and died with the same big move in his bout with Jared Smith. Down 2-0 after the first period, Bumbarger picked a neutral start in the second. There, he hit a five-point lateral drop and then gave up an escape and a takedown to set the score at 5-5 heading in to the final period. Bumbarger then rode out Smith in the third and the match headed to overtime. Smith picked up the sudden victory fall after Bumbarger attempted an ill-advised lateral drop that went awry.
Up next, making his varsity debut for the Bison was sophomore heavyweight Trae Kitko. Out-weighing his counterpart by 30 pounds, Kitko was able to get the opening takedown and turn it in to a fall with one second remaining in the first period. That cut the Dragon lead to 9-6 and gave the Bison some much needed momentum.
At 106, freshman Peyton Smay came up huge as well. Smay dominated Camden Leach by securing the opening takedown and then getting a 2-count for a 4-0 lead. Smay then pressed Leach for the fall at the 47 second mark to give the Bison their first lead, 12-9.
Brandon Holsinger gave Central the lead right back with a third period fall over sophomore Kyler Rosinsky at 113.
The Bison once again took the lead,18-15, after Central forfeited to Cole Smay at 120.
Matt Ryan picked up the Bison’s second fall of the night as he dominated Trevor Quarello from the outset, getting the fall in 1:47. The pin upped the Bison lead to 24-15.
Sophomore Jude Pallo gave the Bison what would be their biggest lead of the night at 132. Pallo was leading 4-1 after the first period, then came off of the bottom for a 6-1 lead when he picked up the fall in 3:33.
The Bison lead was now double over the Dragons 30-15, but Central knew that they had their hammers coming up over the next three weight classes.
At 138 Braden Swab was only up 4-0 over Quentin Edwards after two periods, but Swab turned it up in the final period, upping his lead to 9-0 before finally pinning Edwards in 4:53.
Ethan Kennedy, a senior with 72 career wins, figured he’d have an easy go against winless sophomore Caleb Freeland of Clearfield at 145. However, Kennedy found himself down 3-2 heading to the third period. Kennedy did manage a hard fought 5-3 win over Freeland after picking up an escape and a takedown.
With his two PIAA state championship appearances and his 94 career wins, Brock Biddle didn’t have much trouble with Clearfield’s Hunter Wright at 152. After a pin in 1:01, Central had tied the match at 30-30 with three bouts to go.
Clearfield knew that they had the trump card in undefeated Luke McGonigal coming up in the final bout at 182, so they just needed one win from the Morgan twins at 160 or 170 to more than likely secure the win.
Well, it turned out to be a pretty nice evening at the Morgan household as both nailed down victories to seal the deal.
At 160, Thayne used two first period takedowns and only gave up a first and third period escape to notch a 4-2 win and give Clearfield a 33-30 lead with two bouts to go.
And at 170, Zane completely dominated Corey Aungst getting a takedown and three back points for a 5-0 lead, then muscled Aungst over for the fall at 1:15 to give the Bison their fist dual victory of the young season.
Central didn’t even send out at 182, so McGonigal had his hand raised and his record bumped to 7-0 the easy way, setting the final score at 45-30.
The Bison will look to even their record at 2-2 when the Punxsy Chucks come to town on Thursday night.
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Match-by-match Summary
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195
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Cameron Norris (CENTRAL) over Steven Sawyer (Clearfield) (Dec 8-3)
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0
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3
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220
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Jared Smith (CENTRAL) over Hunter Bumbarger (Clearfield) (SV-1 (Fall) 6:07)
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0
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9
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285
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Trae Kitko (Clearfield) over Damien Kocher (CENTRAL) (Fall 1:59)
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6
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9
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106
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Peyton Smay (Clearfield) over Camden Leach (CENTRAL) (Fall 0:47)
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12
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9
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113
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Brandon Holsinger (CENTRAL) over Kyler Rosinsky (Clearfield) (Fall 4:46)
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12
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15
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120
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Cole Smay (Clearfield) FORFEIT
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18
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15
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126
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Matt Ryan (Clearfield) over Trevor Quarello (CENTRAL) (Fall 1:41)
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24
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15
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132
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Jude Pallo (Clearfield) over Cameron Ulery (CENTRAL) (Fall 3:33)
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30
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15
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138
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Braden Swab (CENTRAL) over Quentin Edwards (Clearfield) (Fall 4:57)
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30
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21
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145
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Ethan Kennedy (CENTRAL) over Caleb Freeland (Clearfield) (Dec 5-3)
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30
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24
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152
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Brock Biddle (CENTRAL) over Hunter Wright (Clearfield) (Fall 1:01)
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30
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30
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160
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Thayne Morgan (Clearfield) over Logan Marko (CENTRAL) (Dec 4-2)
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33
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30
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170
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Zane Morgan (Clearfield) over Corey Aungst (CENTRAL) (Fall 1:15)
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39
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30
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182
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Luke McGonigal (Clearfield) FORFEIT
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45
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30
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