Philipsburg-Osceola wrestling tops crosstown rival West Branch in postseason tuneup
When Justin Fye took over the Philipsburg-Osceola wrestling program at the beginning of the year, he stressed the importance of family.
What better way to end the regular season than with a crosstown rival in West Branch, coached by Jason Bainey, who said he and Fye have been best friends since second grade.
Once the wrestling was completed on Tuesday night, Fye’s Mounties used a family mentality to top Bainey’s Warriors, 54-18, to conclude the regular season.
“We talked about (how) this was the last match where we wrestled as a family,” Fye said. “After this it is all about individual stuff. I felt like everyone went out and wrestled tough. I thought it was a good effort with everybody from Marcus (Gable) to start with and Ian (Phillips) to finish.
“We always talk about the first guy starts it and the last guy ends it. We started with a pin and ended with a pin, usually good things happen when you do that in a dual meet.”
Bainey knew his team was in for a tough season finale with P-O, but West Branch did top Claysburg-Kimmel in a make-up dual, before taking on the Mounties. For him, his message to his guys was simple, and revolved around the upcoming postseason..
“I just told our guys, ‘Let’s go out and fight.’ Tonight was more about getting ready for the postseason,” Bainey said. “I told them I’m not worry about Claysburg and Philipsburg, who wins or who loses. This was a tuneup for that. I thought we scrapped.”
To end the season with a crosstown rival, was something Fye and Bainey both appreciated. After all, last season, this dual was the first one of the year, and there weren’t many fans in attendance.
Fast-forward to this year, the gym was packed with what Bainey felt was 700-800 fans.
“It’s nice to end with a rivalry like that. The kids know each other,” Bainey said. “They are buddies and come to the club 4M. It will give them a little bit of trash talk for a week and a half, and get ready for districts next week.”
As Fye said, P-O started and ended the dual with a pin, but had a total of five falls for all of their fans to cheer for. The Mounties took 7 of the 10 contested bouts, and received forfeits at three other bouts.
All of those pins is what Fye and his staff try to instill in their squad.
“We preach it all the time. When you get a guy on their back,” Fye explained, “you need to get a fall, because you never know what’s going to happen in a match. A lot of our matches this year, we lost some close matches, where maybe we get a fall here or there, and we don’t give up a fall, we could win some of those other matches.”
Marcus Gable got things started for P-O with a pin of Aaron Myers in 1:17 at 145 pounds. Austin Foster followed with a fall of his own in 3:22 over John Myers.
Luke Hughes kept the Mounties undefeated at 160 pounds by earning a 5-0 victory over Tyce Cantolina at 160 pounds. P-O led 15-0.
Logan Folmar stopped the bleeding momentarily for the Warriors by collecting a pin in 1:32 at 172 pounds. However, the Mounties’ Dom Shaw responded with the third pin of the night for his squad in 4:29 over Austin Keirn.
Shaw had built a 15-1 lead, before sticking Keirn. West Branch’s Caleb Baumgartner picked up another fall for his squad in 50 seconds over Andrew Hensal at 215 pounds, to cut into P-O’s lead, 21-12.
Chase Klinger had the fourth pin of the night for the Mounties at 285 pounds, when he put Tyler Biggans on his back in 3:28. After a forfeit to P-O’s Sam McDonald at 106 pounds, the Warriors’ Landon Bainey, coach Bainey’s son, took care of Hunter Kephart in 50 seconds at 113 pounds.
It was the last win of the night for West Branch as the Mounties lead 33-18.
“In some of the matches, we were out manned, but we still scrapped,” coach Bainey said. “Our guys that are expected to win, they went out and did their thing. I thought we battled during that match. It was fun. It was a packed house in here tonight. It’s always fun when you wrestle against someone like that.”
P-O received back-to-back forfeits to Nick Coudriet (120 pounds) and Ben Gustkey (126). Scotty Frantz used a late reversal and near fall points to edge Hunter Schnarr as 132 pounds.
Ian Phillips finished the dual up with a pin in 56 seconds of Nick Stavola.
“They have a couple of good kids in their lineup that we ran into,” Fye said of West Branch and his team. “I felt all of our guys were aggressive and looking to score points. It is probably one of the best all-around matches we’ve wrestled this year.”
Philipsburg-Osecola 54, West Branch 18
Tuesday at Allport
145: Marcus Gable, P-O, pinned Aaron Myers, 1:17
152: Austin Foster, P-O, pinned John Myers, 3:22
160: Luke Hughes, P-O, dec. Tyce Cantolina, 5-0
172: Logan Folmar, WB, pinned Jimmy Richscheit, 1:32
189: Dom Shaw, P-O, pinned Austin Kerin, 4:29
215: Caleb Baumgartner, WB, pinned Andrew Hensal, :50
285: Chase Klinger, P-O, pinned Tyler Biggans, 3:28
106: Sam McDonald, P-O, won by forfeit
113: Landon Bainey, WB, pinned Hunter Kephart, :50
120: Nick Coudriet, P-O, won by forfeit
126: Ben Gustkey, P-O, won by forfeit
132: Scott Frantz, P-O, dec. Hunter Schnarrs, 6-2
138: Ian Phillips, P-O, pinned Nick Stavola, :56
Takedowns: P-O 9, WB 5
Records: Philipsburg-Osceola 13-7, West Branch 9-11
Next match: Philipsburg-Osceola at District 6 Class 2A Championships, Altoona, Feb. 18-19, 9 a.m.
This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 11:25 PM.
