Experienced Bellefonte wrestling team overpowers young Penns Valley squad
Bellefonte coach Mike Maney knows his team is experienced. Penns Valley coach Joel Brinker knows his team is young.
When those two types of characteristics collide, usually experience outweighs the youth.
It was never more prevalent than in the Red Raiders’ 60-17 win over the Rams on Tuesday.
Bellefonte won 11 of the 14 bouts with nine of the victories collecting bonus points. However, for Maney, Tuesday’s match was more about not overlooking Penns Valley in prep for this weekend’s Virginia Duals.
“Coming into this match, we are always nervous because it always falls on this date,” Maney said, “right after the Bald Eagle Duals, where you wrestled five matches in a day. One of the things I wanted to stress on Monday was focus. Focus on this match and nothing else. You got to go out and take care of business; it’s a Mountain League opponent and Centre County tournament. We didn’t want a letdown tonight and I was nervous. It was a good test coming off our first loss, to State College, on Saturday.”
Maney’s squad was extremely focused as it raced out to a 54-0 lead winning the first 10 bouts of the dual.
In that 10-bout streak, the Red Raiders amassed six pins and received two forfeits. Tyler Benner (195 pounds), Max Barrier (285), Aidan O’Shea (106), Nate Smith (120), Jude Swisher (126) and Alex Coppolo (132) were those pinning wrestlers. John Nastase (182) and Ethan Rossman (220) received the forfeits.
The dual began at 170 pounds with Bellefonte’s Stephen Ivicic edging Penns Valley’s Dristen Wolfe in what was considered a toss-up match. Maney knew it couldn’t have been a better starting point.
“Our upper weights have really been wrestling consistently for us,” he said. “Sometimes momentum is a big thing in high school sports. We got on a roll there and I think that might have had a factor.”
Brinker seemed to echo those words when it came to the momentum factor.
“We had some losses right up front. They (His team) saw their teammates going down one by one, it’s hard to get the momentum back,” Brinker said.
It wasn’t all about the momentum for Brinker. He felt his team took themselves out the match before it even began.
He said he heard some of his guys saying, “I got this kid” or “I got that kid.” Those types of things are bound to happen with a young squad. However, Brinker knows that type of thinking won’t help on the mat.
“I felt l had a team show up and not many of them felt they could win the match tonight,” Brinker said. “I think they felt they could go six hard minutes, but I don’t know how convinced they were that they could win their match. By doing that, you’re not going to give yourself a chance to win too many matches. Hustling, fighting and scraping is one thing, but you have to believe that you are going to go out there and win, no matter who you’re wrestling. I think they wrestled very timid tonight.”
Some of those guys that didn’t seem to wrestle timid on Tuesday for the Rams were Clayton Royer, Micah Fetterolf and Malachi DuVall. Those wrestlers strung together consecutive bonus-point wins to get their team on the board.
Royer control his match from the first whistle and rattled off a 16-0 technical fall in 3:55. Fetterolf had just seven seconds left in his match before earning a pin. DuVall picked up his 14th pin of the season to get Penns Valley to 54-17 with one bout to go.
The final bout went to Bellefonte with PIAA place winner Ethan Richner earning a fall in 41 seconds.
“As a coach, we’ve been in that situation before,” Maney said. “Through your coaching career, you have those types of matches. It wasn’t for a lack of effort. I know he (Brinker) has some young guys. He’ll get those guys ready and better. Overall, all our guys went out and battled. I was really impressed with our top position. Guys weren’t giving up anything easy. It is one of the things we are trying to build upon to get ready for the postseason.”
Bellefonte 60, Penns Valley 17
Tuesday at Spring Mills
170: Stephen Ivicic, B, dec. Dristen Wolfe, 5-0
182: John Nastase, B, won by forfeit
195: Tyler Benner, B, pinned Caelob Packer, 2:30
220: Ethan Rossman, B, won by forfeit
285: Max Barrier, B, pinned Rylee Brungart, 3:51
106: Aidan O’Shea, B, pinned Chase Fleshman, 5:17
113: Aaron Little, B, dec. Justin Darlington, 2-0
120: Nate Smith, B, pinned Hayden Yearick, 2:57
126: Jude Swisher, B, pinned Nate Long, 3:01
132: Alex Coppolo, B, pinned Malachi Thompson, 1:35
138: Clayton Royer, PV, tech. fall Brady Martin, 16-0 (3:55)
145: Micah Fetterolf, PV, pinned Alec Bossert, 5:53
152: Malachi DuVall, PV, pinned Andrew McChesney, 3:21
160: Ethan Richner, B, pinned Charles Martin, :41
Takedowns: Bellefonte 16, Penns Valley 3
Records: Bellefonte 7-1, Penns Valley 2-7
Next match: Bellefonte at Virginia Duals, Friday, 9 a.m.; Penns Valley at Clearfield, Jan. 14, 7 p.m.
This story was originally published January 7, 2020 at 10:56 PM.
