A long-time weakness haunted the Bellwood-Antis wrestling team in their double dual meet at Saxton on Saturday. In recent history, the Blue Devil wresting team has won matches on the mat, only to see the final score go in favor of opponents because forfeits had to be added in because B-A wasn’t able to put enough warm bodies on the mat.
On Saturday, Bellwood-Antis gave up forfeits in three weight classes. The Blue Devils got two wins each from Eli Colyer, Will Edwards, Josh Ervine, Mike Thomas and Tyler Narehood, but it wasn’t enough in either of the duals.
B-A wrestled Tussey Mountain first, outscoring the Titans 27-24 in matches wrestled, but the 18 points from the forfeits made Tussey a 46-27 winner. In the second match, Bellwood-Antis was outscored by a 26-20 margin by Southern Huntingdon,which one win going the Blue Devils’ way could have erased. The final score with forfeits added in was Southern 46-32.
Both duals began at the 119-pound weight class. In the Tussey dual, Eli Colyer made quick work of Greg Deihl, scoring the opening takedown and getting the fall in 0:27.
Will Edwards followed at 125, jumping out to an 8-1 advantage after the first period. Will worked two takedowns and a pair of two-point nearfalls for the lead, then almost let Bobby Foster back into the match. Foster gave up an escape to Edwards, then hit the B-A senior for a takedown and three back points to close the score to 9-6, before Edwards registered two more takedowns to insure the 13-7 win and a 9-0 team lead.
The two schools traded pins in the next two weights. Tussey’s Doug Swab pinned Dustin Harris at 130, before Josh Ervine pinned Waylon Corbin in 4:51, at 135. Ervine led 4-2 after one period, then increased the margin to 7-2 with a third-period escape and takedown before getting the pin.
Tussey received a forfeit at 140, and at 145, Bellwood-Antis junior Ron Colyer took a 6-0 lead into the final period, chose the bottom position and promptly got turned and pinned by Matt Wilkins in 4:57, to give Tussey their first lead of the match.
At 152, Mike Thomas trailed David Singer 4-1, and 6-3, at the ends of the first two periods, then reversed Singer to his back for the fall at the 4:57 mark.
Jordan Bollman was all over B-A junior Dwayne Cherry at 160, winning by a 16-4 major decision. Cherry was able to score a reversal and add a pair of back points in the third period to keep Tussey from more than one bonus point.
B-A forfeited at 171, and 189, to the Titans and Anthony Marcella pinned Blue Devil soph Brian Daugherty at 215. Daugherty led 2-0 after the opening two minutes, but couldn’t get off the bottom to begin the second stanza.
Tyler Narehood edged Mike Baker 5-4 at heavyweight with all the scoring coming in the first two periods of the match. Baker opened up with a takedown and back points for a 4-0 lead, before Narehood countered with a reversal. In the second period, the B-A ninth grader received a penalty point and added a reversal for a one-point lead, then rode Baker for the entire third period to pick up the win.
Shane Evans (4-6) shutout Tim Fockler 7-0 at 103, adding a five-point move for insurance in then third period, after making a lone first-period takedown stand up until then.
At 112, Brandon Beech was pinned by the Titans’ John Neville in 0:56 to end the dual.
In the second dual against Southern Huntingdon, Eli Colyer (10-4) opened the meet by pinning Nathan Stains in 2:31, but lost a team point before the match began because he didn’t have his shoelaces taped. The resulting loss of team point gave the Blue Devils a 5-0 team lead, instead of the usual six points for pins. Eli opened up a 5-0 lead with a takedown and nearfall in the first period before adding a second-period reversal and pin.
Edwards (7-1) wasted no time in taking Bryant Yohn down and putting his shoulders to the mat in 1:16.
Southern got on the scoreboard at 130, when Tyler Mansberger majored Dustin Harris 19-6. Harris (2-10) gave up the opening takedown to the Rocket freshman, then came back with an escape and takedown of his own for a 3-2 lead, but Mansberger led 5-3 after one period and kept building to the lead.
At 135, Josh Ervine over ame a nemesis by edging Justin Berrier 3-2. After suffering a pair of two-point losses to the Rocket sophomore, Ervine (11-3) fell behind 2-0, but was able to turn Berrier for two nearfall points at the end of the second period to tie the score and escaped to begin the third stanza for the victory. Berrier had downed Ervine 6-4 in overtime at the Tri-County Tournament and 4-2 at the Zeigler Tournament in a pair of tight battles.
B-A forfeited to Southern Huntingdon at 140, and 145.
At 152, Scott Everhart scored a takedown against Ron Colyer (3-8) then traded reversals with the B-A junior, before decking Colyer in an action filled 1:55 of the first period.
Mike Thomas (6-4) picked up a Southern forfeit at 160, and Dwayne Cherry (8-7) pinned Brandon Shope in 3:49 at 171, to give the Blue Devils their last lead 26-22. Cherry traded a reversal for Shope’s takedown in the first period, then added a penalty point, escape and reversal before catching the Tussey wrestler for the pin.
B-A dropped three of the final four weight classes however, with Tyler Narehood’s forfeit at 275, the only win. Narehood improved to 10-5.
Brian Daugherty (0-12) was pinned by Chris Lyons at 215, Cody Myers repeated a Zeigler Tournament win over B-A junior Shane Evans at 103, and Jason Foor also made it two wins over Brandon Beech with a 0:56 pin.
“As long as we keep developing and keep getting more consistent, we‘re going to be OK,” said Bellwood-Antis coach Ron Wilson. “We lost some matches today we should have won, which has been the case pretty much all year long. We need to reverse that trend and win the ones we should be winning. If we can do that, things will take care of themselves in the end.”
