SHALER TWP - Seneca Valley's Dustin Layton became a three-time section wrestling champion by one point.

Butler's Adam Pritts failed to become a first-time section champ by the same margin.

Layton, the Raiders' 130-pound senior, decisioned Brian Pogel of Hampton, 6-5, in their Section 3 title match Saturday night at Shaler High School.

"This was the toughest section match of my career," Layton said. "That kid is good and he's only a junior. He's going to be great."

Pogel (30-4) won a narrow decision over Layton during the regular season.

"Dustin wanted this (section title) more than the first two because that kid beat him before," Seneca Valley coach Mark Angle said. "He's been working very hard in the room and that effort showed tonight."

Layton (29-5) won his first two matches by pin Saturday and is closing in on 100 wins in his career. Three of Pogel's points in the title match were escapes that Layton voluntarily surrendered.

"I wrestle best from the neutral position," Layton said. "I was just playing to my strength."

Layton has yet to place at the WPIAL Class AAA meet, which runs Thursday through Saturday this week at Canon-McMillan High School.

"I've been around long enough that I should know what I'm doing now," Layton said of the WPIAL meet. "I know what it takes to succeed there."

Butler heavyweight Pritts (25-2) was trying to avenge his only regular season loss in facing North Allegheny's Zach Herbert (29-3) in the section finals.

Pritts scored an escape for a 1-0 lead with 29 seconds left in the second period. Early in the third period, however, Herbert was awarded a point for unsportsmanlike conduct against Pritts.

When Herbert registered an escape with less than a minute left in the match, he escaped with a 2-1 decision.

"They called Adam for locked hands, which you're supposed to release if your opponent's knees are on the mat," Butler coach Scott Stoner said. "But the rule book states the point should go the other way if the opponent deliberately drops to a knee to encourage the call from the official.

"(Herbert) knew what he was doing. There's no way Adam could tell the kid's knee touched the mat from his vantage point. The official blew that call and it set up Adam to lose the match."

Stoner showed the rule to meet officials after the match.

"I'm hoping we still get a No. 2 seed (at WPIAL meet) after this," Stoner said.

Golden Tornado 215-pound senior Jon Miller (19-11) finished second in his weight class, getting pinned in 50 seconds by Ambridge's Rich Dlubak (22-4) in the finals.

Butler 125-pound junior Tom Hollerman (13-16) finished third when he decisioned John Pope of North Hills 5-3 in overtime. Hollerman had scored a technical fall over Pope earlier in the tournament.

His overtime takedown in the consolation final occurred with two seconds left.

"I thought Tommy would breeze through the kid again," Stoner said. "I don't know if he was too cautious, over-confident or what, but we had to scramble to win that one.

"The Ambridge kid can throw people, but besides that, I thought Jon could out-wrestle him. He got caught, though, and couldn't recover."

Seneca Valley's Blake Rice (21-5) finished second at 160 pounds when Shaler's Mickey Moran pinned him in 3:21. Moran won his third section title while Rice was bidding to become a three-time champion.

Freshman Pat Coyne (21-12) at 112 pounds and sophomore Lee Layton (16-14) at 135 placed third for the Raiders and qualified for the WPIAL meet.

"All of those kids have been wrestling well," Angle said. "They've got some momentum and we're looking forward to next week."

Notes:

North Allegheny's Jamie Kyriasis received the Section 3 Coach of the Year Award before the finals. … NA 171-pounder Matt Territt became a four-time section champion. … Shaler had five section champions, including freshman Matt Nelson at 125. … Butler's Dave Coburn (140) and Seneca Valley's Dale DiCicco (145) finished fourth in their respective weight classes.