CURWENSVILLE – The Golden Tide celebrated Senior Night on Tuesday, and they came away with their fifth victory of the year with a win over the Clarion Bobcats, 39-36.
In a relatively quick night in which only seven bouts were wrestled, six ended in first period falls, and only one match went the distance.
The Curwensville Golden Tide started off the match with a forfeit at 145 by senior Caleb Stiles (1-3). Clarion then responded by getting falls at 152 and 160 over Duane Brady (8-11) and Steve McBride (0-1).
Curwensville put more points on the board when senor Cole Bressler (11-8) pinned Clarion’s Carl Welch in 1:01 at 170 pounds. Bressler took down Welch to his back and pinned him with a half nelson. This evened the score 12-12.
The match of the night then took place at 182 as sophomore Jake McCracken bumped up to face Clarion’s Camden Boggess. Boggess was able to take McCracken down with a single leg in the first period, and McCracken escaped to make the score 2-1, Boggess. In the second period, McCracken took the bottom position and got another escape to tie up the match 2-2.
Then in the third period, Boggess took bottom, and after 45 seconds he reversed McCracken, and then worked an arm bar, nearly turning him for back points on several occasions. Somehow, McCracken, recovered with just 15 seconds left and attempted a switch maneuver. The wrestlers ended up on their feet and Boggess was pushing forward to try and keep control of McCracken. McCracken used the opportunity to step over and trip Boggess to his back with 10 seconds left, but the referee called them out of bounds and gave McCracken a pair of back points. McCracken led 6-4 with eight seconds to go. In that time, he allowed Boggess to escape and held on for a 6-5 victory.
“This was the match that made the night.” said Head Coach Dean Swatsworth. “If McCracken didn’t win that match, we lose 39-36.”
Following that, senior Alec McGarry (2-4) won his first varsity wrestling bout when he pinned Clarion’s Kamie Studer in just 58 seconds. His other win on the season was a forfeit.
Then Clarion’s Tyler VanTassel scored a fall over Gage Roos (4-7) at 220 before receiving forfeit at 285. This sparked forfeits to be handed out at 106, 113, 120, 126 and 132. Before you knew it, the final match of the night was being held at 138, and the score was 39-30 in Curwensville’s favor.
At 138, junior Adam Straw (7-12) jumped out to an early lead against Clarion’s Colton Zacherl. Straw took Zacherl down to his back, and was quickly up 5-0. However. Zacherl was then able to get an escape and take Straw down to his back, where he got the fall with five seconds remaining in the first period. This made the final score 39-36, Curwensville.
Overall, Coach Swatsworth felt his team wrestled well, but they need to work on some little things that could make a big difference.
Curwensville’s record now stands at 5-11 on the year. The Golden Tide are scheduled to wrestle at West Branch on Thursday night, pending inclement weather.
