HS roundup: St. Joe’s wrestling crowns 4 champs at New Oxford tournament, and more

St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy traveled to New Oxford High School on Friday to compete in the New Oxford wrestling tournament.

The Wolves had five placewinners with four champions in Zack Witmer (138 pounds), Caleb Dowling (152), Keegan Rothrock (160) and Tyler Stoltzfus (170). Amonn Ohl (132) finished fifth.

As a team, St. Joseph’s finished fifth with 138.5 points. Red Land won the tournament with 163 points, only a half-point ahead of Canton.

Dowling, Rothrock and Stoltzfus, who is the No. 1-ranked wrestler in the country at 170 pounds, according to InterMat, all bonused their way to titles. Dowling used four straight technical falls, outscoring his opponents 65-4.

Rothrock used three pins to make the finals and earned a 16-1 technical fall to win the crown. Stoltzfus pinned his way to the title bout with his quickest coming in 1:20 in the second round.

State College goes 1-2

The Little Lions had a busy week with three duals, but they can thank Mother Nature for that.

On Jan. 13, State College was edged by Chambersburg on Senior Night, which was a makeup for a dual originally slated for last week. On Tuesday, the Little Lions picked up a 40-22 win over Central Mountain. On Thursday, State College came up short in a 37-34 loss to Cumberland Valley.

Lance Urbas, Ty Price, Hayden Cunningham, Owen Woolcott and Clayton Leidy were all a perfect 3-0 on the week. Tate McLaughlin and Harrison Hoopes also were perfect, but only competed in two of the duals.

Penns Valley bounces back

The Rams had two duals last week and they were both on the road. They suffered a 43-32 loss to Clearfield on Tuesday, but rebounded with a thrilling 37-36 victory over Mifflinburg on Thursday.

Penns Valley trailed by as much as 13 against Mifflinburg and took the lead on Dristen Wolfe’s 9-0 major decision with two bouts left. Mifflinburg received a forfeit at 182, but Andrew Sharer, who was competing in just his second match of the season, pinned his opponent to seal the win for the Rams.

Chase Fleshman, Nate Long, Malachi DuVall and Cole Felker, who was just in his second match of the season, all tallied bonus-point victories for Penns Valley in the win.

Eagles end up on opposite ends of blowouts

Bald Eagle Area opened the week by earning a win over a Mountain League foe, but faltered later in the week.

The Eagles won 11 of 14 bouts against Tyrone on Tuesday in a 58-16 rout. On Thursday, Central Mountain came into Wingate and topped BEA 44-18.

In the dual against Tyrone, the Eagles received pins from Chandler Burns, David Close, Isaac Packer, Gage McClenahan, Zander Ballock and Camden Comly. Coen Bainey had a bonus-point win, as did Cooper Gilham and Grace Stem, who received forfeits.

McClenahan, Ballock, Gilham, Ballock and Noah Foltz were the lone winners against the Wildcats.

Bellefonte routs Huntingdon

The Red Raiders welcomed Mountain League foe Huntingdon on Tuesday and dropped just three bouts in a 57-13 victory.

In all but two of Bellefonte’s bout victories, bonus points were scored.

Tyler Benner, Max Barrier, Aidan O’Shea, Aaron Little, Nate Smith and Andrew McChesney had falls. Ethan Rossman, Alex Coppolo and Ethan Richner all secured technical falls.

Jude Swisher and Brady Martin were other winners for the Red Raiders.

Mounties sneak by Central

Philipsburg-Osceola traveled to Martinsburg and came back home with a 40-33 win over the Scarlet Dragons on Thursday.

Nick Coudriet, Gabe Dunkelberger, Austin Foster, Luke Hughes, Hunter Weitoish, Parker Moore and Tyler Anderson were all winners for the Mounties.

Coudriet, Hughes, Weitoish, Moore and Anderson all secured pins. Foster received a forfeit, and Dunkelberger earned a major decision.

Girls’ basketball

St. Joe’s goes 3-0

St. Joe’s had a successful week with dominating wins over Philipsburg-Osceola, St. John Neumann and Harmony.

The Wolves’ first stop was in P-O, where they cruised to a 64-34 win after getting off to a fast 11-0 start.

“Usually we come out a little slow, which tends to hurt us,” junior Kathleen Simander told the Centre Daily Times. “So being able to come out and press the score really helped getting everything else in check.”

Simander led her team in scoring against P-O with 23 points.

The Wolves used another quick start to stamp out St. John Neumann 68-13 on Wednesday. They finished the week with a 55-14 pounding of Harmony Friday.

St. Joe’s improves to 9-6 on the season, and will host BEA Monday night.

State College rebounds after 1st loss of season

After winning 10 straight, the Lady Little Lions finally suffered a blemish on their season resume, a 63-33 loss on the road at Central Dauphin Jan. 13.

The Rams were able to limit standout senior Maya Bokunewicz, who was nominated this past week for the McDonald’s All-American team and was named to PennLive’s midseason Mid Penn All-Star team, to just 9 points. Jada Coleman led State College in scoring with 11 points.

The Lady Little Lions, however, were able to bounce back from that tough loss with wins over Central Dauphin East, 77-36, and Chambersburg, 39-25.

Bokunewicz got back on track against CDE, lighting up the backboard for 27 points, while Isabelle Leazier, who was named to PennLive’s second-team midseason Mid Penn All-Star team, added 17.

State College is now 12-1 on the season and will next host Cumberland Valley at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Montminy leads Penns Valley in 2-1 week

Penns Valley’s Hannah Montminy continued her impressive senior campaign last week, again leading her team in scoring in all three games.

In the Rams’ 66-28 win over P-O, Montminy scored 17, followed by Katie Martell with 13. Montminy scored 20 in the Rams’ 55-32 win over Jersey Shore, and 19 in their 63-37 loss to Central.

The Rams are 6-7 overall, and 4-4 in the Mountain League. They’ll next take on Tyrone at home at 7:30 Wednesday.

Eagles’ offense shines in win over Mo Valley

Bald Eagle Area scored in double figures in three of the four quarters Wednesday night at Moshannon Valley, rolling to a convincing 64-25 win in the team’s most impressive offensive performance of the season.

Lacee Barnhart led the scoring with 22 points, while Maddie Perry also reached double digits with 13.

“I was very pleased with our second-half effort,” head coach Darin Hazel said in a statement. “We passed the ball extremely well tonight ...”

The Eagles, however, came up short in their other two contests last week, falling 45-31 to Huntingdon Tuesday and 53-40 to Clearfield Friday, splitting the series with the Bison 1-1 for the season.

Perry led the scoring in both games, netting 13 against Huntingdon and 16 vs. Clearfield. Barnhart added 13 in the Clearfield game.

The Eagles are now 5-7 on the season, and will next face St. Joe’s at 6 p.m. Monday.

Bellefonte nears 500 wins mark

Bellefonte earned the program’s 499th win Wednesday, 60-38 against Clearfield, but wasn’t able to reach 500, falling 54-22 to Tyrone Thursday.

The Red Raiders saw two players score in double digits against Clearfield in junior Sara DeHaas, with 16, and junior Maddie Tice with 14.

Tice led the scoring for Bellefonte against Tyrone with 10.

The Red Raiders are now 5-10, and will face P-O Wednesday for another shot at 500.

Defense dooms P-O in 0-3 week

The week started out rough for the Lady Mounties with back-to-back home losses Monday and Tuesday.

P-O wasn’t able to stop the St. Joe’s offense Monday night, falling 64-34 after never getting closer than 5 points from the Wolves, despite a second-half spark from senior center Kyleigh Kennedy, who scored 16 of her team-high 20 points in the final two quarters.

“When it comes down to it, we just couldn’t hold them,” first-year P-O coach Brandon Myers told the CDT. “Every time we scored, it seemed like they’d just go right down and score. Credit goes to their offense tonight; they were that much better than our defense.”

The same thing doomed P-O in its 66-28 loss to Penns Valley the next day. Kennedy again led her team in scoring, with 15 points. The Mounties also had a solid day at the foul line, going 12-14.

Despite playing tough for four quarters, the Lady Mounties couldn’t overcome a slow start against Huntingdon Friday, falling 57-29. Lindsey Bordas sank three 3-pointers to lead P-O in scoring with 15 points.

P-O is now 2-12 overall and 0-8 in the Mountain League, and hosts Bellefonte at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Boys’ basketball

St. Joe’s breaks winless streak

After falling 71-55 to Philipsburg-Osceola on Jan. 13 for its 15th loss of the season, St. Joe’s finally got the monkey off its back Wednesday with a 51-49 win over Southern Huntingdon — its first of the season.

The Wolves kept that momentum rolling into Friday, when they topped Harmony 65-58. St. Joe’s got out to a big lead in the first half vs. Harmony, thanks in part to three consecutive 3-pointers by Noah Straub and Brendan Scanlon to finish the second quarter.

Scanlon led all scorers in that game with 32 points, while Aidan Cross added 19 and Straub chipped in 11.

Scanlon was also the leading scorer in the P-O loss with 24. Cross also got into double digits with 18. Scoring stats were not available for the Southern Huntingdon game.

St. Joe’s is now 2-15 and will next take on Williamsburg on the road Tuesday.

Penns Valley goes 2-1 to stay above .500

Penns Valley kept its winning season going after a 2-1 week to improve to 8-6 overall.

The Rams’ two wins this week were 50-45 over Mifflinburg and 67-29 over P-O.

Senior Logan Snyder set the tone early for Penns Valley in its blowout win over P-O Wednesday, ending the game with a team-high 18 points. Sophomore Zach Braucht added 13 — including a dunk near the end of the game.

“It was a good test for us,” Penns Valley head coach Terry Glunt told the CDT. “They’ve been playing everybody tough. I thought we had a really tough matchup tonight. I was pleased with our defense. I think we’re growing as a team and we showed that tonight.”

The Rams weren’t able to keep that momentum going into Friday’s matchup with Central, falling 47-26.

They’ll next host Bellwood-Antis at 7:30 p.m. Monday.

P-O has mixed results

After starting off the week strong with a 71-55 win over St. Joe’s Monday, Philipsburg-Osceola lost 67-29 to Penns Valley and 80-63 to Huntingdon to fall to 6-7 on the season.

Led in scoring by Ryan Whitehead with 23 and Jacob DeSimone with 13, the Mounties outscored the Wolves in three of four quarters for the win.

Things did not go as well for P-O against Penns Valley on Wednesday, as the Rams had no problem infiltrating the Mounties’ zone defense.

“We thought we’d come out and throw something different at them,” P-O coach Matt Curtis told the CDT. “Our back guys got a little out of place and we didn’t rotate. They were disciplined and got good shots and we had to get out of it quickly.”

DeSimone was the lone Mountie to reach double digits in scoring, with 11 points.

P-O was outscored in all but the third quarter against Huntingdon. Ty Doyle was P-O’s top scorer with 32 points, while Ryan Whitehead added 21.

The Mounties next play at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Bellefonte.

BEA’s hot start cools off

Bald Eagle Area saw a hot start to the week — scoring 35 points in the first half en route to a 63-54 win over Mount Union on Jan. 13, cool off with consecutive losses to Huntingdon, 78-43, and Clearfield, 59-42.

The Eagles were unable to get much of anything going offensively Wednesday against Huntingdon, only scoring double digits in the second and third quarters. However, two players did reach double digits, in Nick Maynard with 13 points and Jaden Jones with 10.

The Eagles started off strong against Clearfield, leading 12-10 at the end of the first quarter. But Clearfield outscored BEA in each quarter after that. Jones and Nathan Hoover led the scoring for BEA with 13 apiece, while Maynard added 11.

The 4-9 Eagles return to action on Monday as they host the Bucktail Bucks at 7:30 p.m.

Bellefonte goes 1-2

Bellefonte started off the week with a 44-40 win over St. Marys on Jan. 13, before losing two straight.

The Red Raiders recorded a 58-51 loss to Clearfield Wednesday, and an 80-42 loss to Tyrone Friday.

Bellefonte outscored Clearfield in the second half of Wednesday night’s game, but couldn’t complete the comeback, according to the Clearfield Progress. Ben McCartney led Bellefonte in scoring with 30 points, while Isaiah Nadolsky also reached double digits with 12.

The Red Raiders are 4-8 and face Jersey Shore at 7:30 p.m. Monday at home.

State College has rough week

Despite a strong effort and a couple close games, the Little Lions were unable to come away with a win after a slate of three consecutive Mid Penn opponents this past week.

State College was dominated 67-41 by Central Dauphin on Jan. 13, thanks in part to a big third quarter that saw the Rams outscore the Little Lions 23-9. The Little Lions then dropped a close one, 63-60, to Central Dauphin East on Wednesday.

The Little Lions finished up the week on the road, falling 55-42 to Chambersburg on Friday.

The 4-11 Little Lions next play Cumberland Valley at home Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

Swimming & diving

State College earns 2 dual meet wins

The State College boys’ and girls’ swimming and diving teams swept their competition this past week with dual meet wins over Central Dauphin and Williamsport.

Against Central Dauphin on Tuesday, the Little Lions took first place in all but two of the 24 events for a combined score of 256 -108. State College took all but four against Williamsport for a combined score of 233-135.

.Williamsport’s Matthew Beard took first in both the 100-yard butterfly and 50-yard freestyle, two events typically dominated by State College senior Matt Brownstead. Encouraged by his coaches to continue challenging himself, Brownstead has been trying his hand at other events. While he didn’t swim in the 50 free or 100 butterfly Thursday, he did compete for the first time in the 500 freestyle, winning in 4:41.43.

Hockey

State College falls on the road

Despite leading by 2 at the end of the first period, State College fell 4-2 to Westmont Hilltop at the Cambria County War Memorial on Thursday.

Westmont Hilltop scored a pair of goals to tie things up in the second, then a pair to take the lead in the third, outshooting the Little Lions 37-27.

Robert Zimmerman scored both goals for State College. John Olsen had 33 saves in the net.