MORRISDALE — After going 0-3 at the quad meet in Clearfield last Saturday, and then having two matches postponed due to covid during the week, one would have understood a poor performance by the Curwensville Golden Tide wrestlers in their dual meet this Saturday against local rival West Branch.
Instead, the Tide won six out of the 11 contested matches, five by fall and one by major decision, plus picked up the lone forfeit of the entire match, and came home with a 40-30 win to raise their record to 2-4 on the season.
West Branch (currently 5-4 after wrestling two more duals after the Curwensville match Saturday) took the early lead when 172 pounder Logan Folmar (8-1) pinned the Tide’s Chase Irwin (1-5) in 54 seconds. Jake McCracken (2-4) even the score at 189 with 24 second fall over Tyler Wilson.
At 215 and 285 the two teams traded falls again, with Ethan Yingling (7-2) putting the hosts on top, while Curwensville’s Duane Brady (4-2) tied the match at 12 each.
Freshman phenom Landon Bainey (9-0) made it five first period pins to begin the match when he needed 34 seconds to pin the Tide’s Damian Brady (2-4) to set the score at 18-12 Warriors.
Jake Carfley (5-1) started to swing the momentum Curwensville’s way with a 9-0 major decision over Landen Pase (4-5) at 113. Carfleys win narrowed the score to 18-16 and started a five bout win streak that determined the winner.
After no one could field a 120 pounder, Nik Fegert (4-2) received a forfeit at 126 and the Curwensville had three falls in a row to take an insurmountable 40-18 lead.
At 132, freshman Ryder Kuklinskie remained undefeated at 5-0, Zach Shaffer raised his record to 4-2 at 138, and Logan Aughenbaugh evened his record at 3-3 at 145.
West Branch then narrowed the final score by getting falls at 152 by Will Herring (8-1) and Tyce Cantolina (7-2) at 160.
Curwensville will be at home on Tuesday to host the Moshannon Valley Black Knights, while West Branch will be in a multi-dual with Bellwood Antis and United on the same night.
| Weight | Summary | WBH | CAH | |
| 172 | Logan Folmar (West Branch Hs) over Chase Irwin (Curwensville Area Hs) (Fall 0:54) | 6 | 0 | |
| 189 | Jake McCracken (Curwensville Area Hs) over Tyler Wilson (West Branch Hs) (Fall 0:24) | 6 | 6 | |
| 215 | Ethan Yingling (West Branch Hs) over Brennen Moore (Curwensville Area Hs) (Fall 1:23) | 12 | 6 | |
| 285 | Duane Brady (Curwensville Area Hs) over Billy Bumbarger (West Branch Hs) (Fall 1:04) | 12 | 12 | |
| 106 | Landon Bainey (West Branch Hs) over Damian Brady (Curwensville Area Hs) (Fall 0:34) | 18 | 12 | |
| 113 | Jacob Carfley (Curwensville Area Hs) over Landen Pase (West Branch Hs) (MD 9-0) | 18 | 16 | |
| 120 | NO MATCH | 18 | 16 | |
| 126 | Nik Fegert (Curwensville Area Hs) over Unknown (For.) | 18 | 22 | |
| 132 | Ryder Kuklinskie (Curwensville Area Hs) over Kaleb Sallurday (West Branch Hs) (Fall 4:46) | 18 | 28 | |
| 138 | Zach Shaffer (Curwensville Area Hs) over Parker Johnson (West Branch Hs) (Fall 1:26) | 18 | 34 | |
| 145 | Logan Augenbaugh (Curwensville Area Hs) over John Myers (West Branch Hs) (Fall 1:00) | 18 | 40 | |
| 152 | William Herring (West Branch Hs) over Mitchell Sutika (Curwensville Area Hs) (Fall 1:18) | 24 | 40 | |
| 160 | Tyce Cantolina (West Branch Hs) over Dylan Harmic (Curwensville Area Hs) (Fall 2:43) | 30 | 40 |