Flying Dutch Gain Measure of Revenge Against Bison Wrestlers

HYDE — The Saint Marys Flying Dutchmen came in to the Arthur J. Weiss Gymnasium Thursday night looking to pay back the home standing Bison for the loss that the Bison handed them in the District 9 Team Championships last year.

During the regular season dual a year ago, the Dutch manhandled the Bison 49-15, but were dealt a 29-28 loss in the finals of the District 9 Duals, enabling the Bison to represent D9 at the PIAA State Team Championship in Hershey.

The Bison also went on to claim the District 4-9 title last year; therefore giving the visiting Dutch plenty of incentive for this year’s dual meet.

And after the first four matches, the Dutch had all of the momentum and a 17-0 lead.

The match started at heavyweight where Joe Kucenski (6-4) used his extra 20 pounds to his advantage over Bison sophomore Avery Gisewhite (5-8), scoring the final six points of the bout in a 6-2 win.

A Tylor Herzing (10-3) headlock and first period fall over fellow freshman Peyton Smay (3-8) really got the raucous visiting crowd going as it gave the Dutch an early 9-0 lead.

Bison sophomore Cole Smay (4-6) score the bout’s opening takedown at 113, but it was all Gregory Tettis (8-4) after that in a bout that was ended at the 5:51 mark by technical fall, 17-2.

In a headliner bout at 120, returning District 4-9 champion Tyler Dilley (9-2) outlasted Bison junior Matt Ryan (10-8) 11-4 giving Saint Marys a big 17-0 lead and all the momentum on their side.

But a bright spot in the line up showed up for the Bison at 126. Sophomore Jude Pallo (6-6) turned in what was probably his best performance of the season by besting Hayden Tettis (7-4) by a 10-6 count. Pallo was actually down after the first period 3-2, but took a 5-3 lead in to the final period where he opened up a tight 7-6 match with the final points via escape and late takedown.

With the lead down to 14 points at 17-3, the Dutch got those three points right back after a 6-1 Marcus Reed (5-6) win over Quentin Edwards (1-8) at 132.

The Bison then got the first of their three forfeits when sophomore Rudy Cordon (1-0) had his hand raised in his varsity debut at 138, cutting the margin to 20-9.

The Dutch got to send out another returning District 4-9 champ in Cameron Resch (11-2) at 145. Only up 4-0 after two periods over Bison sophomore Caleb Freeland (3-7), Resch recorded two takedowns in the final period to earn a major decision, but Resch was obviously frustrated in not being able to turn Freeland for back points.

Bison junior Hunter Wright (13-7) and Garrett Cook (8-4) hooked up in a dandy at 152. There were several scoring attempts throughout the match, but Wright made a second period escape the difference in a clutch 1-0 win, which included a third period ride out. That cut the Dutch lead in half at 24-12.

The Bison then received forfeit victories at 160 and 170 with Jarrett McCracken (1-0) and Thayne Morgan (7-4) picking up the easy wins to tie the match at 24 each.

At 182, the Dutch’s Brandan Cherry (9-2) was able to clip Bison senior Steven Sawyer (3-7) by a 6-3 score that essentially locked up the dual meet for the visitors.

Luke McGonigal (13-1) picked up his tenth fall of the season at 195 over Mitchell Cashmer (7-5) in 51 seconds, briefly giving the Bison their first lead of the night at 30-27.

The lead was short-lived, however, as the Bison had no one to send out at 220, so Saint Marys’ third District 4-9 champion, Christian Steffan (12-2) won via forfeit to set the final at 33-30 in favor of the Flying Dutch, who raised their season record to 3-1.

The Bison (2-4) will be back in action next Tuesday when they travel to Bellefonte for a Mountain League match on the Red Raiders’ home mat.