KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Both teams won five bouts, but No. 11 Pitt-Johnstown notched three wins by fall to upend 18th-ranked Kutztown in the Golden Bears dual opener, 24-17, at Keystone Arena.
Results
KU had two bonus wins of its own, as
Austin Ormsbee (Blairstown, NJ/Blair Academy) and Bionojel Candelaria scored major decisions at 133 and 165.
Two of the Mountain Cats' falls came in the first round and Travis McKillop's pin at 184 sealed the win for UPJ (1-1).
Evan Link put Kutztown in an early hole, pinning
Nick Lamoreaux (Bethesda, MD/Milton Hershey) at 125 in 2:19 to start the match. The Golden Bears rebounded, however, as Ormsbee dominated his match with Benny Rager, scoring a 12-1 major decision to cut the Mountain Cat lead to 6-4.
Dave Cawley notched a pin in 2:09 at 141 against
Evan Yenolevich (New Tripoli, PA/Northwestern Lehigh (Edinboro)) and
Mitch Voelker (Shoemakersville, PA/Schuylkill Valley) fought hard at 141, but came out on the short end of an 8-4 final to Jack Bachman as KU trailed 15-4.
The Golden Bears (0-1) quickly fought back with a pair of shutout wins to cut it to 15-11.
Matt Martoccio (Kintnersville, Pa./Council Rock South) blanked Joel Paolo 5-0 at 157 and Candelaria followed with a 9-0 major decision against Chad Miller to make it a four-point match.
Brian Gibbons was a 3-0 victor against
Ricky Pena (Reading, PA/Reading) at 174 before McKillop sealed the win for the Mountain Cats at 184.
Kutztown won the final two bouts to cut into the lead, but it was not enough.
Vinny Campanile (Stanhope, NJ/Lenape Valley) outdueled Sean O'Connell 5-3 at 197 and
Ziad Haddad (Orefield, Pa./Bethlehem Catholic (North Carolina)) continued to roll at 285 with a 10-3 win over Josh Duplin.
Haddad remained undefeated on the year at 6-0. Candelaria and Campanile are also off to fast starts. Candelaria has a 6-2 mark with four major decisions to his credit and Campanile is 7-1 to lead the team in victories.
Kutztown is now idle until December 1 when American International visits Keystone Arena for an 11 a.m. dual match.
