CLEARFIELD – The Battling Bison Wrestling Team fell to 0-2 on the season after being dominated by the DuBois Beaver’s 42-30 Friday night at the annual Pete Morelli Memorial match.
Clearfield won just 4 of the 12 wrestled bouts, confirming Head Coach Jeff Aveni’s thoughts that the team just doesn’t line up well with DuBois’ “horses.”
DuBois has several state ranked wrestlers on their team right now, including returning state champion Ed Scott at 152. There is nobody in his league at the district level, and he smoked Bison junior Logan Firanski (0-3) with a fall in just 20 seconds Friday night. That was in the middle of a 5 win-streak for DuBois that put the match out of reach for the Bison.
DuBois got the first six points of the night when they received a forfeit at 113 pounds.
DuBois would add three more points to the team score at 120 and lead 9-0 after their Brendan Orr defeated Bison junior Derrick Bender (0-4) by a 5-3 decision. Bender had an opportunity to get a late takedown in the match, and Coach Aveni talked after the match that if Bender makes it to practice more often, he wins that match.
Nolan Barr was finally able to get some momentum going for his season at 126 by getting a second period fall over Beaver Cadin Delaney in 2:36 and improving his record to 2-3. The match was not close and Barr was leading by a major decision score before securing the fall and making the team score 9-6, DuBois.
DuBois stud Trenton Donahue then added to his impressive 100+ win career by pinning Clearfield’s Peyton Smay (3-4) in 1:37 at 132.
Perhaps the best match of the night for Clearfield may have been a loss on the record board, but was a personal victory for sophomore Karson Kline (4-3). Kline ran into returning state qualifier Chandler Ho at 138 pounds and gave him a good match as he came out swinging on several good shot attempts and didn’t let up. Though Ho used his excellent defensive wrestling skills to lead 7-1 heading into the third period, Kline was able to get an escape and finally get his own takedown off of a double leg to close the gap to 7-4. Ho then pulled off standing switch to win 9-4. Still, many looking at the match assumed Ho would major decision Kline, and Kline was able to keep it much closer than expected. This put Clearfield down 18-6.
Clearfield then lost at 145 when sophomore Luke Freeland (2-4) gave up a 5-1 advantage he had in the second period and ended up losing 6-5 to DuBois Ryan Gildersleeve. Then Clearfield gave up falls at 152 and 160.
Bison Mark McGonigal (5-2) would finally get some more points on the board at 170 for Clearfield with a second period fall over DuBois Ryan White. McGonigal cut the gap to 33-12, DuBois.
Then senior Brett Zattoni (5-3) was in a great match with DuBois Garrett Starr at 182 pounds, keeping the match tied after one, losing by one point after two periods, and then being handled in the third period to lose 10-4. Starr is another good kid and Zattoni wrestled very well going into the third period where he surrendered a couple sets of back points.
Clearfield responded with two quick pins out of sophomores Hayden Kavolick (5-3) and Oliver Billotte (6-1) at 195 and 220, respectively, before DuBois returned the favor again at 285 with a pin of their own. A forfeit was given at 103 to Clearfield, making the final team score 42-30, DuBois.
Clearfield ended up losing by a difference of one pin, and different outcomes at 120 pounds and 145 would have tied the match. Coach Aveni was noticeably displeased with those matches, but has feedback to take back to the practice room now before wrestling Huntingdon and Punxsutawney next week, and mentioned several wrestlers will be dropping down in weight classes at the new year.
