Bald Eagle Wrestlers gut out tough match over PV

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: January 3, 2020

By Kenny Varner

WINGATE – It was gut check time for the Bald Eagle wrestling team Thursday as they went up against a very tough Mountain League for Penns Valley.

Battling through the tough competition and injuries, the Eagles came up strong when called upon, winning 46-27 at a full Bald Eagle Gym.

“We’re banged up a little bit from this past weekend we wrestled at the Trojan Warriors Duals. Some of the guys wrestled seven or eight matches. So we’re a little banged up. But when you wrestle Penns Valley you got to strap it on because they fight and come at you and never give up,” said Bald Eagle coach Ron Guenot. “A couple places we were behind and came back with Chandler Burns and the last one with Isaac Packer. Those two were down by five, six and seven points and came back and kept wrestling. That’s what we want to see.”

Penns Valley’s Clayton Royer notched his 100th as he pinned Kevin Taylor, 1:13 into his match.

The match started with Royer and Taylor at 138-pounds, giving the Rams a 6-0 advantage.

At 145, Bald Eagle’s Zander Pallock controlled the match from beginning to end winning a major decision over Micah Fetterholf 9-0, cutting the Penns Valley lead to 6-4.

In one of the closest matches of the night, 152-pound Gage McClenahan started off with an early 4-1 lead before Penns Valley’s Malachi Duvall battled back to force an overtime period, knotted at four. However, McClenahan was able to line up Fetterolf and took him down for the 6-4 overtime win, making it an Eagles’ win.

Penns Valley battled right back at 160 as Curtis Martin found himself trailing late but after the second period Bald Eagles’ Drew Koleno had hurt himself and had to forfeit the match, giving Martin the medical forfeit over Koleno, putting them back ahead 12-7.

But that lead only lasted a minute as Bald Eagle 170-pounder Noah Foltz picked up a forfeit, giving the Eagles a slim 13-12 advantage.

But the Rams responded in a strong way at 182, the Rams Dristen Wolfe (pinned Matt Knepp at 5:12.

Bald Eagles’ Chandler Burns had a flare for the dramatics at 195 when he picked up a late pin over Caelob Packer with one minute left in the third, putting the Eagles back ahead at 19-18.

Bald Eagle got an easy win at at 220 when David Close picked up another forfeit, upping it to 25-18.

But Penns Valley cut it back to one when Penns Valley’s 285-pounder Rylee Brungart also picked a forfeit.

At 106 the Eagles’ Coen Bainey pinned Chase Fleshman at 1:41.

With the pin, Bald Eagle jumped ahead 31-24.

Penns Valley cut back into the Eagles’ lead.

At 113, the Rams’ Justin Darlington picked up the decision over Jeffre Pifer, 9-3.

120 – pounder BEA’s Cooper Gilham pinned Hayden Yearick at 4:31 to give his team some breathing room at 38-27.

At 126, Grace Stem increases the Bald Eagle lead to 16 with a forfeit.

At 132, Bald Eagles’ Isaac Packer came back from being down 7-0 early to take an exciting 9-8 decision over Malachi Thompson, giving Bald Eagle the 46-27.

Bald Eagle Area 46, Penns Valley 27

106 – Coen Bainey(BEA) pinned Chase Fleshman (PV), 1:41.

113 -Justin Darlington (PV) dec. Jeffre Pifer, 9-3.

120 – Cooper Gilham (BEA) pinned Hayden Yearick (PV), 4:31.

126 – Grace Stem (BEA) forfeit.

132 – Isaac Packer (BEA) dec. Malachi Thompson (PV), 9-8.

138 – Clayton Royer pinned Kevin Taylor (BEA), 1:13.

145 – Zander Pallock (BEA) maj. Dec. Micah Fetterholf (PV), 9-0.

152 – Gage McClenahan (BEA) dec. over Malachi DuVall (PVAH) (SV-1 6-4

160 -Curtis Martin (PV) med. forfeit over Drew Koleno (BEA)

170 – Noah Foltz (BEA) forfeit

182 – Dristen Wolfe (PV) pinned Matt Knepp (BEA), 5:12.