BUTLER TWP — The pins came early and often for Butler Tuesday night.

Five of the Golden Tornado's first six wrestlers to hit the mat won by fall as Butler (17-4) rolled past Bethel Park, 61-9, in the first of three home dual matches this week.

Butler racked up eight pins on the evening.

“We've been working on using the arm bar around the back and trapping it underneath,” Butler coach Scott Stoner said. “We've struggled with it, but we picked up three or four pins in a row tonight using that move.”

Max Stalnaker, Connor Foust, Korey Caudill, Cody Houston, Jeremiah Bortmas, Zach Raible, Zach Weaver and Damian Wheeler scored the pins for the Golden Tornado.

Houston pinned his opponent at 132 pounds in 51 seconds, Butler's quickest pin of the night. It was also Houston's team-leading 22nd fall of the season.

Weaver was locked in a scoreless tie with Bethel's Adam Montgomery midway through the second period when he scored a takedown and executed the arm bar maneuver for a sudden pin.

“Once you trap the guy, he has nowhere to go,” Stoner said.

Butler won two matches by decision. Ryan Hannon posted a 13-3 win at 170 pounds and Alex White scored a reversal with 50 seconds left to score a 2-0 win at 220 pounds.

Blake Caudill (27-4) won by forfeit at 120 pounds. The victory was the 120th of his career, second on the Tornado's all-time list behind Cole Baxter.

“I was hoping to get Blake a match tonight. This is the stretch run before the sectional meet,” Stoner said.

Bethel Park (5-7) won three matches via decision and scrambled to win two of those. The Black Hawks' Paul Dunn (21-9) scored a reversal with 1:04 left to edge Xavier Bennett, 8-7, at 138 pounds. Alex Gates (7-1) reversed Grant Ferrari with 23 seconds left for the only points in a 2-0 decision at 152.

“We didn't come to wrestle tonight,” Bethel Park coach Bob Stewart said. “This was very disappointing. We didn't show what we can do at all.

“Butler is a strong team from top to bottom. We didn't respond to their aggressiveness.”

Bennett's (19-9) loss kept him from becoming the Tornado's seventh 20-win wrestler this season. The six include Foust (23-7), Blake Caudill (27-4), Korey Caudill (28-4), Houston (28-7), Hannon (25-3) and Weaver (26-7).

Natge Grygo improved to 27-8 at 195 pounds for Bethel Park with a 9-4 decision of Alex White.

“Alex held his own in that march and had a nice ankle takedown late against a tough kid,” Stoner said. “You look for things to build on in a match like that and that was one of them.”

Stewart said Bethel Park used to wrestle Butler on a fairly regular basis during the 1990's.

“We haven't seen them at all recently and their program has become stronger,” he said. “It's good for our kids to wrestle kids they've never seen before, especially this close to the individual tournaments.

“I just wish we would have done better.”

Butler closes out its dual match schedule by hosting West Allegheny tonight and Blackhawk on Friday night.

(Match started at 106 pounds)106-Max Stalnaker (B) pinned Theodore Gates, 3:25; 113-Connor Foust (B) pinned Michael Smith, 2:25; 120-Blake Caudill (B) by forfeit; 126-Korey Caudill (B) pinned Mike Vogel, 2:37; 132-Cody Houston (B) pinned Grant Conroy, :51; 138-Paul Dunn (BP) dec. Xavier Bennett, 8-7; 145-Jeremiah Bortmas (B) pinned Tom Kologziej, 4:58; 152-Alex Gates (BP) dec. Grant Ferrari, 2-0; 160-Zach Raible (B) pinned Bryce Carter, 5:43; 170-Ryan Hannon (B) dec. Matt Nolan, 13-3; 182-Zach Weaver (B) pinned Adam Montgomery, 3:21; 195-Nate Grygo (BP) dec. Nick Gibson, 9-4; 220-Alex White (B) dec. Sam Gercak, 2-0; Hwt.-Damian Wheeler (B) pinned Chris Pauley, 1:46