Moving quickly
ADAMS TWP — Taking control early on in bouts is something Butler wrestling coach Scott Stoner would like to see more of.
He witnessed a good dose of it Wednesday night in the Golden Tornado's first dual match of the season.
Butler managed a take-down within the first 30 seconds in six of its bouts with Mars. The Golden Tornado won each of those contests and went on to defeat the host Planets 48-18 in the Section 3-A opener.
“We preach being aggressive to all of our wrestlers,” said Stoner, “but they are still not as aggressive as we'd like them to be.
“When a young team is aggressive, they're going to make mistakes, but we need to foster a philosophy of confidence. We want our kids to be relentless.”
Golden Tornado senior Jeremiah Bortmas was just that in his 160-pound bout against Chris Lorch. The former managed a take-down 18 seconds in, led 5-0 after one period and held a commanding 9-1 advantage after the second period. He earned a technical fall with his fifth take-down of the bout with just seconds remaining in the third period, winning 18-3.
Bortmas wants to be the aggressor every time he steps on the mat.
“I always want to set the tone early,” he said. “I should've had the pin tonight, that's what I'm always striving for. But sometimes, it just doesn't happen.”
Also using early domination to pave the way to victory were Butler's Christian Sequete, Nick Roth, Connor Foust, Scott Dietrich and Caleb Baxter. Dietrich (132 pounds) and Roth (182) both won via pin, as did teammates Donovan Malovich (145) and Justin Johnson (195).
“We're young,” said Mars coach Jason Wilk. “We're starting seven freshmen and they are still green when it comes to this atmosphere. We had a few matches go our way tonight, but Butler is a tough team and it will be nice to see how we can grow from this.”
The Planets' lone fall of the night came at 106 pounds when freshman Alex Hornfeck pinned Isaiah Christy in the opening period.
“I didn't know anything about my opponent tonight, but I try to wrestle every match the same and go as hard as I can,” said Hornfeck, who placed fifth at the Hickory Invitational last weekend. “This shows the other freshmen that just because they are young, they are still capable of doing well. My goal this season is to get to 20 wins.”
The match included one forfeit as Butler was unable to fill the 113-pound weight class.
Both teams will be back in action Friday. Butler travels to Peters Township while Mars visits Pine-Richland.
Butler 48, Mars 18
(Match started at 145 pounds)
106-Alex Hornfeck (M) pinned Isaiah Christy, :41; 113-Maxwell Pasquinelli (M) won by forfeit; 120-Sam Dietrich (B) tech. fall Joey Scanlon 15-0, 2:32; 126-Connor Foust (B) major dec. Aiden Lashinsky 13-5; 132-Scott Dietrich (B) pinned Robby Crawford, 1:38; 138-Caleb Baxter (B) dec. Silas Bender 6-0; 145-Donovan Malovich (B) pinned Ryan Swan, :36; 152-Noah Wright (M) dec. Hank Finan 4-3; 160-Jeremiah Bortmas (B) tech. fall Chris Lorch 18-3, 5:58; 170-Christian Sequete (B) major dec. Anthony Grieco 10-2; 182-Nick Roth (B) pinned Nick Shriver, 2:22; 195-Justin Johnson (B) pinned Jeff DeSantes, 2:54; 220-Trevor Heyl (M) dec. Seth McCrea 2-1; Hwt.-J.D. Bojanac (B) dec. Tony LaCava 3-0.
