Coming off an 18-15 victory over Union City, the Youngsville junior high wrestling team made the short journey west to Corry Thursday night for their second dual meet in three days. In an evening with several hotly contested matches, the Beavers edged the Eagles 21-19.

Jacob Battko led off for the Eagles at 101lbs. Battko matched up with two time PJW girls state champion Makenna Williams. In a back and forth affair, Battko was able to score a takedown in overtime to edge Williams 2-0.

Following Battko was Ayden Dean at 108lbs. Dean took an early 2-0 lead over his opponent Roman Kafferlin. Unfortunately for Dean, he fell victim to an opportune underhook and the strength of Kafferlin driving Dean to his back proved too much to counter as Dean surrendered the fall with six seconds left in the second period.

Up next for the Eagles, making his season debut, was Brayden Patch at 115lbs. Patch, giving up several inches in height to his opponent, battled valiantly in his debut. Patch was able to fend off several pin attempts by his opponent, but ultimately dropped a 5-0 decision.

Tucker Sanford looked to continue his winning ways in the next bout at 130lbs. His opponent was former Little Eagles wrestler Zach Nichols. After spending the majority of the first period scoreless, Sanford was able to score a takedown and the successive nearfall points to head into the second period with a 5-0 lead. Sanford was able to finally turn Nichols for the fall with fifteen seconds remaining in the match.

Brenton Myers followed at 138lbs. Myers faced off with Michael Himes. Myers found himself down 2-0 after the first period. Myers, working from the bottom position, worked to score a reversal but was felled by Himes’ half nelson at the 2:39 mark.

At 145, Mason Fleming squared off with Charley Gantz. Fleming quickly scored on a thunderous double leg takedown and half combination. After giving up an escape, Fleming scored again on another double leg and half combination. Except this time Fleming was able to collect the fall at the 1:17 mark.

At 155, Collin Havers faced off with Corry Junior High co-captain Colton Porter. In a physical battle, Havers was able to mount an early lead and never looked back as he held the Beaver largely scoreless in the 10-1 major decision win.

In the last contested bout, at 170lbs, Ryker Chase faced returning PJW state medalist Brody Nickerson. Nickerson was able to take a quick lead before scoring a fall thirty eight seconds into the second period.

In extra match action: Jacob Battko fell by a score of 4-0 against returning PJW Junior High girls state medalist Finley Fourspring; Ayden Dean dropped a 7-2 decision to returning area champ Owen Anderson; Brayden Patch picked up his first career win by fall in 0:33 seconds; Tucker Sanford notched another win by pin, this time over Koda Kuzma; Brenton Myers dropped a very close and engaging match to Ashton Woods 10-8 in overtime; Collin Havers scored a win by fall in 2:02 over Devin Merski; and Mason Fleming finished off the evening with a win by fall in 0:48 over Zach Nichols.

“Overall, it was a mixed bag of a dual” claimed Coach Tim Suydan, “We’re definitely improving as a team considering last year we didn’t win a match against Corry. But, we’ve still got some bad habits to kick. Having previously coached a lot of the kids on the Corry junior high team when they were in Corry’s youth program, I kind of had an idea of what to expect from each kid we matched up with. We seemed to be fairly prepared for a lot of the things thrown our way, but we still had some surprises thrown at us nonetheless. Ultimately, it’s another building block for us to work with as we head into the heart of our schedule.”