Seniors' statement

By John Enrietto Eagle Sports Editor

February 16, 2012 Last Updated: February 16, 2012 02:13 PM High School

Butler senior Jesse Spohn pins Gateway's Tyler Boehm during their 138-pound match Wednesday night. The Golden Tornado rolled to a 66-9 victory.

BUTLER TWP — If Butler's wrestlers wanted time to celebrate Senior Night, they got their wish.

The Golden Tornado recorded seven pins — six in the first period — in rolling through Gateway, 66-9, Wednesday night in the Intermediate High School gym.

The match lasted less than an hour and marked Butler's (19-6) final competition before the section tournament Feb. 25 at Fox Chapel.

“It would have been nice to get Ben (McKnight) a win and Zach (Reges) a match, but we can't complain too much about this,” Butler coach Scott Stoner said.

Butler's other three seniors — Nick Sutton at 126 pounds, Jesse Spohn at 138 and Dakoda Collins at 152 — all won via first-period pins Wednesday. Sutton secured his fall just 34 seconds into his match.

Collins improved his career record to 111-45 while recording his 63rd career pin, most among current wrestlers on the team.

“Dakoda is like a predator who takes his prey and snuffs the life out of it,” Stoner said.

Also notching pins for Butler were Blake Caudill at 113 pounds, Cody Houston at 120, Zach Schultz at 145 and Zach Weaver at 182. Weaver's fall came in 49 seconds.

Schultz's pin was his first win and second varsity match this season. Houston is 2-0 at the varsity level this year.

Reges picked up his 101st career win by forfeit, but tied Alex Evanoff for fourth on the Tornado's all-time victory list.

“My goal has been 100 wins for a long time,” Reges said. “I really wanted to join that club.”

Butler had a 66-0 lead at one point before Gateway (6-7) won the final two matches of the evening. The Gators had only three wrestlers in their lineup with winning records. Two of them — 220-pounder Jaymar Parrish (17-8) and heavyweight RJ Hughes (15-8) — emerged victorious.

The other, 160-pound Austin Davidson (17-12), suffered a 13-6 loss to Butler's Will Bortmas.

“Jaymar and RJ are peaking at the right time,” Gateway coach R.J. Santilli said. “They could do something for us in the postseason.”

Parrish scored an 8-2 decision over McKnight, dropping the Tornado senior to 15-19 in his only season as a starter. McKnight does have 10 pins on the year.

“Ben wants to play football in college,” Stoner said. “He's one of those guys who decided to throw his hat in the ring, say ‘I'm gonna man up and try this.'

“Some of the things he's learned through wrestling will help him in football, wherever he winds up playing.”

Gateway reached the WPIAL team quarterfinals a few years ago, only to see its youth program begin to fade away.

“We lost leadership at that level and we're paying for it now,” Santilli said. “It's back to the drawing board in terms of building everything back up.”

Stoner admitted it was hard to guage his team's performance Wednesday.

“Execution is all about waiting for the opportunity, that opening, seizing it and finishing,” he said. “We could have finished matches a little quicker tonight in some cases.

“Gateway had a couple of starters banged up and we wondered if they'd have a full lineup tonight regardless. They didn't seem to have a whole lot out there.”

Santilli was Butler's junior high coach in 2000-01 before moving on to Gateway.

“Butler has a good, solid lineup and Coach Stoner does a good job with them,” Santilli said. “When I was here, I remember how badly coaches Stoner and (Bill) Mylan wanted to build a program, how much they worked with and cared about the kids as individuals.

“I'm not surprised at all to see where that program is today.”

Butler will enter the section tournament with 10 wrestlers sporting more than 20 victories: Bortmas (24-13), Blake Caudill (28-3), Korey Caudill (30-6), Collins (30-6), Conner Foust (23-13), Ryan Hannon (24-8), Reges (29-8), Spohn (24-10), Sutton (31-7) and Weaver (30-7).

Butler 66, Gateway 9(match started at 106 pounds)106: Connor Foust (B) by forfeit;

113: Blake Caudill (B) pinned Thaer Shouman, 1:58;

120: Cody Houston (B) pinned Ryan Taylor, 1:32;

126: Nick Sutton (B) pinned Carlos Derry, :34;

132: Zach Reges (B) by forfeit;

138: Jesse Spohn (B) pinned Tyler Boehm, 1:10;

145: Zach Shultz (B) pinned Mike Limbacher, 3:19;

152: Dakoda Collins (B) pinned Dan Freeauf, 1:15;

160: Will Bortmas (B) dec. Austin Davidson, 13-6;

170: Ryan Hannon (B) dec. John McGuire, 7-2;

182: Zach Weaver (B) pinned Malik Shuman, :49;

195: Nick Gibson (B) by forfeit;