NEW BETHLEHEM, Pa. (EYT) — The Redbank Valley Varsity Bulldog wrestlers suffered a heartbreaking 1-point loss to district rival Brockway Area High School Rovers in an incredible wrestling meet in New Bethlehem, Tuesday evening.
The regulation meet ended in a tie; necessitating a check of the PIAA rulebook to determine how to break the tie. After consulting the rule book, official Steve Hoover and the team statisticians determined that Brockway won the meet because their team scored more first takedowns than the Bulldogs. A significant proportion of the large, high-energy crowd stayed around until the win was announced.
The Bulldogs jumped out to a quick lead in the first match as Travis Crawford, wrestling at 145 pounds pinned his Rover opponent with 17.5 seconds left in the third period. The lead didn’t last long, with the Rovers winning the next two matches by pins.
The next Bulldog win came at 170 pounds when Bulldog John Tibbs pinned Brockway’s Erik Botwright in the first period with 49.7 seconds left on the clock.
Wrestling at 182 pounds, Brockway’s Garrett McClintick pinned Bulldog Murphy Anderson in 1:30.
At 195 pounds, Logan Minich from Redbank beat Pierce Yahner on points.
Finishing the heavyweights, Bulldog Scott Toth lost to Hayden Thompson by a fall. This was an excellent match, with both wrestlers exhibiting tremendous skill, energy and agility.
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Circling back to the lightweights, Redbank’s Ethan Wiant won by forfeit at the 106-pound class.
At 113, Rover Anthony Glasl won his match against Bulldog Brayden Altobelli.
At 120 pounds, Mason Songer from Redbank was well matched against Brockway’s Evan Grech. This was an exciting match, both wrestlers were very quick and very physical. Mason Songer took the match with a pin at 17 seconds into the third period.
A forfeit for Hunter Martz of Redbank at 126 pounds brought the score to within a point with Brockway leading 34-33.
The pressure was on the last two Redbank wrestlers. Weighing in at 132 Dawson Wilson fought hard against Tino Inzana from Brockway.
Inzana took the match with a decision to take a 37-33 lead.
The last match of the night was Bulldog Colten Mohney against Rover Linkin Nichols. After an incredibly hard-fought match, Mohney won the match with a major decision; creating the tie.
In the junior high match, the Bulldogs beat Brockway, 42-37. Brockway had controlled the match into the heavier brackets, when the Bulldogs were able to break through and finish up with the win. The Bulldogs have three more matches to finish up the regular season. The next outing will be Thursday evening at home against Ridgway.
