Bellwood-Antis traveled to Roaring Spring to the Spring Cove Middle School for a wrestling match on Tuesday that took less time to wrestle than the kids spent on the short bus trip. With both the Blue Devils and Scarlet dragons suffering from not enough warm bodies to fill a lineup, Bellwood-Antis rode five forfeits to a 42-28 win.
The dual meet opened at 145, with Ron Colyer (4-11) picking up a forfeit, but the Blue Devils surrendered a freebie of their own to Central’s Miles Lamborn at 152.
Mike Thomas (9-7) and Dwayne Cherry (10-11) received forfeits for Bellwood-Antis at 160, and 171, respectively to push the Blue Devils into an 18-6 lead. Then another B-A forfeit to Dragon 189-pounder Travis Rhodes narrowed the deficit to 18-12. Thirty points had been scored, but at that point the first match to be contested was coming up.
Central senior Brian Burket scored a takedown at the buzzer ending the first period at heavyweight for a 2-0 lead over B-A ninth grader Tyler Narehood. Burket added a reversal and Narehood notched an escape in the second period. Narehood (11-10) took the bottom position to begin the third period and Burket was able to turn him for the fall in 4:24 to knot the team score at 18-18.
There was no match at 103, with Central junior Doug Ritchey moving up to 112, to wrestle sophomore Brandon Beech.
Ritchey used seven takedowns and a three-point nearfall for a 17-4 major decision, but Beech (5-10) saved his team several team points by staying with Ritchey and allowing the talented Dragon wrestler to score just two points in the final period.
Eli Colyer (14-6) picked up a forfeit at 119, to move Bellwood-Antis back into the team lead 24-22 and Will Edwards (12-2) followed with a quick fall over Josh Feathers to open up the B-A advantage to 30-22.
In one of the more pivotal matchups, Dustin Harris (3-15) came from behind to pin Luke Hammaker, at 130, in a decision that wrapped up the team win for the Blue Devils. Hammaker opened the first period with a takedown and Harris picked up an escape late in the period. With Harris taking the down position to begin the second stanza, Hammaker caught the B-A sophomore on his back for three nearfall points to up his lead to 5-1. Harris managed an escape and garnered a takedown of his own to cut the lead to 5-4 at he end of the second period. Then when Hammaker chose neutral to start the final period, with both wrestlers on their feat, Harris took his opponent down and worked him for the fall in 4:55.
With the dual out of reach, Central then forfeited to Josh Ervine (15-5) at 135 and moved Vince Garlock up to wrestle 140 in the final match of the short evening. Garlock earned a takedown on Liam Flynn (1-12) and finished the dual with a pin in 1:37.
“They say ‘a win is a win’,” said Bellwood-Antis coach Ron Wilson. “The kids wrestled well tonight. A couple of our kids really came through big. Brandon Beech wrestled a very good wrestler tonight. By him stepping up to the plate and wrestling well, he saved us a few team points, that in the end could have proved to be very big. Then Dustin Harris in a real tight match pinned his kid. The team score was very close up until that points. Hopefully this is something they can build on and they can go to the practice room and feel good about themselves and turn it into some more success a little bit down the road.”
The Blue Devils (2-10) host Huntingdon on Thursday with the junior high set to start at 6 p.m. and the varsity to follow at 7 p.m. Then Bellwood-Antis will travel to Tyrone for a Saturday match at 9 a.m. before closing out the regular season at home against Portage, also on Saturday, at 1 p.m.
Junior High
The Bellwood-Antis junior high took advantage of 12 Spring Cove forfeits to trounce the hosts 78-15 in the preliminary match.
Dan Pielmeier (145) and Tim Collier (90) won by decision and Don Partner (95), Joe DelMastro (100), Dustin Pruznac (110), T. J. Byers (115), Ron Wilson (122), Ricky Tilley (130), Garrett Wyland (138), Boe Latchford (155), Andy Martinez (185), Caleb Stephens (210) Tyler McCracken (75) and Trey Mock (85) all won by forfeit for the Little Blue devils who improve to 7-5.
Bellwood-Antis 42 Central 28
145 – Ron Colyer (BA) won by forfeit
152 – Mikes Lamborn (C) won by forfeit
160 – Mike Thomas (BA) won by forfeit
171 – Dwayne Cherry (BA) won by forfeit
189 – no match
215 – Travis Rhodes (C) won by forfeit
275 – Brian Burket (C) pinned Tyler Narehood 4:24
103 – no match
112 – Doug Ritchey (C) maj. dec. Brandon Beech 17-4
119 – Eli Colyer (BA) won by forfeit
125 – Will Edwards (BA) pinned Josh Feathers 0:58
130 – Dustin Harris (BA) pinned Luke Hammaker 4:55
135 – Josh Ervine (BA) won by forfeit
140 – Vince Garlock (C) pinned Liam Flynn 1:37.
Junior high
Bellwood-Antis 78 Spring Cove 15
95 – Don Partner (BA) won by forfeit
100 – Joe DelMastro (BA) won by forfeit
105 – Brad Ritchey (SC) dec. Ricky Shawley 8-5
110 – Dustin Pruznac (BA) won by forfeit
115 – T. J. Byers (BA) won by forfeit
122 – Ron Wilson (BA) won by forfeit
130 – Ricky Tilley (BA) won by forfeit
138 – Garrett Wyland (BA) won by forfeit
145 – Dan Pielmeier (BA) dec. Matt Laughlin 8-5
155 – Boe Latchford (BA) won by forfeit
165 – Mason Fornwalt (SC) pinned Chad Schilling 1:05
185 – Andy Martinez (BA) won by forfeit
210 – Caleb Stephens (BA) won by forfeit
250 – Jeremy Rhodes (SC) pinned Cody Smith 2:02
75 – Tyler McCracken (BA) won by forfeit
80 – no match
85 – Trey Mock (BA) won by forfeit
90 – Tim Collier (BA) dec. Jared Shiffler 3-0.
