Wildcats dominate take dual meet over Jersey Shore 69-6
By Joe Walker
MILL HALL, PA- The Central Mountain Wildcats opened their 2023-24 dual meet season with a 69-6 win over an undermanned Jersey Shore Bulldog squad on Tuesday evening. There were eight forfeits in the dual meet, with the Wildcats receiving seven of them and the Bulldogs getting one.
The Bulldogs’ Michael Branton received a forfeit at 107 pounds to give the Bulldogs a 6-0 lead, but as it turned out that would be the only points they would muster in the dual, as Wildcats would take the next 12 bouts.
Receiving forfeits for the Wildcats were Collin Bauman (114), Jaggar Pardoe (121), Carnell Noone (139), Bryce Brungard (189), Rocco Serafini (215) and Giovanni Tarantella (285).
The first of the five bouts wrestled came at 127 pounds, where Wildcat freshmen Aiden Kunes built up a 7-1 lead in the first period with two takedowns and three nearfall points. He escaped to start the second period and then took Mason Winter down and recorded the win with a fall in 56 seconds of the second period.
Wildcat freshmen Patrick Tarantella got the opening takedown and then recorded a fall over Camden Parker in 1:10 of the first period to put the Wildcats up 24-6. Noones’ forfeit win made it 30-6. Defending state champion Luke Simcox then came out and built up a 8-3 lead before pinning Tobias Morgret in 1:03 of the first period to make it a 36-6 Wildcat lead.
Wildcat Senior Griffin Walizer recorded eight take downs enroute to a 16-5 lead and then recorded a fall over Johnathan Dincher in 1:17 of second period of their 152 pound bout and that put the Wildcats up 42-6.
The only match of the night that went the distance came at 160 pounds, where Wildcat sophomore Hunter Donley built up a 5-0 lead after two periods. Bulldog senior Kale Ross rallied back in the final period to get three takedowns to Donley’s two escapes, but Ross couldn’t get the final takedown and Donley held on for a close 7-6 decision, setting the score at 45-6.
Junior Jacob Weaver built up a 7-1 lead before he pinned the Bulldogs Gordon Stewart in 1:56 of the first period to make it a 51-6 Wildcat lead. Then the final three weights of the night were all forfeit wins for the Wildcats setting the final score at 69-6.
“You never know how the kids will come out after a tournament and then a dual meet where they know there are going to be a number of forfeit wins. But the kids came out and were aggressive and got to work on things that we are working on in practice. I thought the four JV kids were aggressive as well and did use some things we worked on the past few days in practice and that was good. Still have some things to correct and work on and Thursday night will give us an early chance to see where we are” stated Wildcat head coach Biff Walizer after the win.
The Wildcats, now 1-0, will host the Mifflin County Huskies on Thursday night. The Huskies are 1-1 on the season, as they defeated Chambersburg, but lost to Gettysburg over the past weekend.The Wildcat Junior High team Tuesday battled to a 39-39 tie with the Jersey Shore Little Bulldogs. There will be a Junior High match prior to the varsity dual meet Thursday. Both dual meets will be streamed live on therecord-online.com.
