It’s a new year, but the results from Thursday night’s annual Backyard Brawl between Tyrone and Bellwood-Antis on the wrestling mat continued to be more of the same old thing. For the Golden Eagles, that’s a good thing, winning 10 of the 14 weight classes for a 51-16 triumph. For the Blue Devils, believe it or not, it was a step in the right direction.
“Our kids really get up for Bellwood. The kids just come in here with a different attitude for this match” explained Tyrone coach Blair Packer. “A lot of the kids know each other. It (a Bellwood-Antis win) hasn’t happened before I came here and it hasn’t happened yet. Each year Bellwood keeps getting a little better. I think Ron Wilson’s doing a nice job there.”
Despite the improvement, Bellwood-Antis (1-3) has never defeated Tyrone in wrestling, with the streak reaching 29 matches, every year since the 1976-77 season and still counting. Only twice (1976 and 1992) have the Blue Devils been able to get within three points of the Eagles.
Tyrone (6-1) won for the sixth straight time after beginning the season with a match against a very tough Indian Valley squad. Eagle junior Donnie Conrad began the match with a first period pin over B-A 189-pounder Josh Keagy, the first of five falls for the Eagles. Conrad (3-6) opened the match with a pair of takedowns, then decked the Bellwood-Antis senior (1-6) in just short of the first minute of wrestling (0:59)
At 215, Eagle senior Johnny Miller and B-A freshman Cody Smith (1-7) went round and round, with Miller notching a first-period takedown and middle-stanza reversal and holding on to a 4-0 victory to even his record at 3-3.
Bradley Oswalt jumped the Tyrone lead to 15-0 by pinning Blue Devil sophomore 275-pounder Kris Morder in the third period. Morder took Oswalt down to begin the match and put the Tyrone junior on his back for three nearfall points. Oswalt came back with a penalty point, escape and takedown to slice the lead to 6-4 after one period, and escaped for the only points of the second period to make his deficit just 6-5. Morder (2-9) chose the bottom position to begin the final period and it cost him when Oswalt (2-7) rolled him to his back for the pin at the 4:32 mark. At the time, it was anybody’s weight class to win.
Cody Weaver (7-3) picked up a forfeit at 103 to push the Eagles lead to 21-0, and then T. J. Albright (6-0) decked his sixth straight opponent since becoming eligible to wrestle, jumping out in front of Donnie Partner 5-0 in the opening two minutes at 112, and then reversing and pinning Partner (3-7) in 3:07.
At 119, Tyrone senior Robert Waite (11-3) jumped out in front of sophomore Tim Collier (1-1) 14-1, looking for a pin or tech fall. Collier wasn’t ready for that however, registering a takedown after Waite escaped to begin the third period to limit the damage to a 15-3 major decision and a 31-0 Tyrone advantage.
The Blue Devils greatest strength is the middle of their lineup and it was no different on Thursday night in the Tyrone gym. Eli Colyer (125), Ricky Shawley (135), Dustin Harris (140) and Ronnie Wilson (152) gave Bellwood-Antis a mini-surge to cut a 31-0 deficit to a more manageable 35-13.
“I expected the match to be a lot closer, we gave up a couple of falls in matches where we could have gotten falls,” said Bellwood-Antis coach Ron Wilson. “At heavyweight we had the kid on his back and we ended up getting pinned there. Josh Ervine will recover and be alright. Our kids didn’t back down tonight, we wrestled with a lot of fire. Tyrone had a better team than we did tonight. It showed out there on the mat. We will continue to get better as the season goes along. Tyrone has some pretty tough kids, even some of the matches that we lost, our kids hung in there tough. It is a learning experience, we will get better from it.”
Colyer ( 5-2) started big against Tyrone sophomore Anthony Romano with a takedown and back points in the opening period and three more nearfall points in the second stanza to jump out to an 8-1 lead. Romano (6-5) picked up a pair of third-period escapes, but the B-A senior countered with two more takedowns for a 12-3 major decision. Shawley (6-2) used takedowns in the first and third periods for a 4-1 win over Tyrone junior John Markel (0-9). At 140, Harris evened his record at 5-5 by decking Cody Reese in the Tyrone sophomore’s first varsity match. Harris, a senior recorded a takedown and two back points early, then turned Reese again for the fall in 1:20. Ronnie Wilson (8-5) picked up the final Bellwood-Antis win at 152, with an 8-5 decision over Tyrone sophomore Shayne Tate. Wilson took a 4-1 advantage after one period and built the lead to 7-1 with three nearfall points in the middle period. Tate (5-4) used an escape, takedown and penalty point to close the gap to 8-5, but was unable to do anything more.
“Bellwood has a couple scrappy kids in there, they are rebuilding, they have a lot of young kids in there,” said Tyrone coach Blair Packer. “We knew where they were strong. Shawley at 135, Harris at 140 isn’t bad, they are tough in the middle.
“I think Tyrone-wise, we wrestled well tonight, wrestled for the most part, the way we wanted to. There are a couple spots, a couple things we want to work on. The 275-pound match was a toss-up, we weren’t sure who was going to come out on top. They traded points there for a while, and finally we got the pin.”
Eagle sophomore Jon VanAllman (5-6) worked a reversal and six back points in the second period to down Brandon Beech (4-6) for a 10-2 major decision at 130, and Sam McCloskey pinned the Blue Devils Josh Ervine in 2:56 at 145, in a battle of seniors. Ervine (10-1) took a 2-0 lead over McCloskey in the first period, but McCloskey (8-3) picked up two nearfall points at the beginning of the second period and then stunned the B-A senior midway through the period, putting him on his back to hand Ervine his first loss of the year. The pin by McCloskey avenges a 12-4 loss by major decision to Ervine in last year’s dual meet, and a 10-1 loss by major decision to Ervine in the Eastern Sectionals.
“We told Josh there would be bumps in the road along the way,” said Coach Wilson, who has moved Ervine back and forth at either 140 or 145 to meet the best competition. “This was one of them.”
At 160, Justin Schopp (6-5) had three takedowns and a nearfall in the opening period, before showing B-A junior Mike Ballard (1-8) the lights at the 2:25 mark.
James Updike closed out the dual with a takedown clinic at 171, to best Garett Wyland 15-5. Updike (5-4) matched Schopp a weight class earlier, with three takedowns and three back points to start the match and then went one or two better with a reversal and takedown in the middle stanza, before adding another takedown in the third period to ice his win. Wyland (2-7) picked up five escapes for all his points.
“We will probably be above average, we’ve got a ways to go. We are shooting for the end of the season,” said Coach Packer. “We just have to keep on it, keep drilling and working hard and I think good things will come if we keep working for it.”
Tyrone 51 Bellwood-Antis 16
189 – Donnie Conrad (T) pinned Josh Keagy 0:59
215 – Johnny Miller (T) dec. Cody Smith 4-0
275 – Bradley Oswalt (T) pinned Kris Morder 4:32
103 – Cody Weaver (T) won by forfeit
112 – T. J. Albright (T) pinned Donnie Partner 3:07
119 – Robert Waite (T) maj. dec. Tim Collier 15-3
125 – Eli Colyer (BA) maj. dec. Anthony Romano 12-3
130 – Jon VanAllman (T) maj. dec. Brandon Beech 10-2
135 – Ricky Shawley (BA) dec. John Markel 4-1
140 – Dustin Harris (BA) pinned Cody Reese 1:20
145 – Sam McCloskey (T) pinned Josh Ervine 2:56
152 – Ronnie Wilson (BA) dec. Shayne Tate 8-5
160 – Justin Schopp (T) pinned Mike Ballard 2:25
171 – James Updike (T) maj. dec. Garett Wyland 15-5.
