Balanced Bald Eagle Area wrestling tops Philipsburg-Osceola to remain unbeaten

Bald Eagle Area has shown off its talent a lot this season — and, on Wednesday night, it flashed its balance.

BEA won nine of the 14 bouts in a 44-26 victory over county-rival Philipsburg-Osceola but, in a couple of those losses, the Eagles’ wrestlers didn’t give up to their tougher opponents.

“There are certain places where I thought we didn’t look so well — but there were some places where guys had some fight,” BEA coach Ron Guenot said. “Those are the kind of things you look for. You might see that somebody got beat, but they didn’t give up the fall.”

Guenot praised Rilee Bechdel and Alex Holt for hanging tough against P-O’s Brandon Anderson and Chase Chapman in his team’s losses. The Eagles (11-0) picked up victories from their usual hammers in Seth Koleno, Garrett Rigg and Gage McClenahan.

Koleno rattled off nine first-period takedowns of Cole Hoover before pinning the sophomore 31 seconds into the second period at 138 pounds. Rigg, who wrestled up two weight classes at 160 pounds, tallied four takedowns, a reversal and two near-fall points to earn a 12-4 major decision over Matt Shimmel.

McClenahan’s victory was sandwiched in there at 152 — but the win didn’t go how he anticipated. The sophomore took on the Mounties’ ace in Matt Johnson, but the match was called due to injury at the 1:13 mark when the Eagles led 12-6.

The severity of the injury was unknown to P-O coach Brad Pataky.

“He snapped so hard his hand went through McClenahan’s arm and into the mat,” Pataky said. “That’s what we preach in the room, try to snap through the arms (of your opponent) and to the mat. He did that.”

Following Rigg’s victory, BEA went on to stretch its lead to eight after splitting the next four bouts with the Mounties. Dylan Bisel earned a 15-0 technical fall over Kyle Taylor at 182 pounds. David Close used a takedown with 10 seconds left in his match with Josh Hubler to earn a 3-1 decision.

After a pin for P-O’s Jordan Smith at 285, the Eagles recorded three straight victories from 106-120 pounds to clinch the dual. Cooper Gilham received a forfeit at 106 pounds. Garrett Giedroc had eight takedowns — four alone in the third period — to earn a 23-8 technical fall over Nicholas Bryan. Drake Holderman nearly had Aaron Foster pinned early in the first period thanks to a near-sided cradle but ended up finishing with a 6-4 win.

Even though his team didn’t end up on the winning side, Pataky was pleased with how his team competed.

“The score definitely doesn’t show the way the match went. We lost some close ones,” he said. “We won some close ones. We got some upsets. We’re happy with how the kids performed. We’re proud of their fight. Each and every one of them went out there ready to wrestle today.”

P-O got some timely wins to keep the dual close throughout most of the night.

Alex Dunkelberger stuck Nate Poole on his back with six seconds left in their 145-pound bout. Dunkelberger’s pin tied the dual at 6-6. Ian Klinger came out at 170 pounds and raced out to an 11-2 lead on Richard Taylor. Klinger then pinned Taylor in 3:36 and the Mounties were within 16-12.

Anderson earned a 14-5 major decision over Bechdel at 195 pounds to get his team within 21-16. After Smith earned that pin at 285 pounds in 1:21, the Mounties were on the heels of BEA 24-22. It was the closest they’d be the rest of the night.

“I think their confidence is a lot higher,” Pataky said of his wrestlers compared to last year’s dual. “Last year, we didn’t have the same mentality. We kind of buckled a little bit. This year we came out swinging.”

This story was originally published January 17, 2018 at 11:17 PM with the headline "Balanced Bald Eagle Area wrestling tops Philipsburg-Osceola to remain unbeaten."