Clarion (0-1, 0-0 MAC) vs. Rider (0-1, 0-0 MAC)
Saturday, January 16 | 2 p.m.
Clarion, Pa. | Tippin Gymnasium

How to Watch
Golden Eagle home duals are all available for free viewing on your streaming device through the Clarion Golden Eagle Vision app, available on Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV and Roku. You can also watch on your mobile device or desktop at portal.stretchinternet.com/clarion.

Mat 1 Stream | Mat 2 Stream

Ten Quick Points

• The Golden Eagles will look to even their season record in their Mid-American Conference (MAC) opener on Saturday, when they host longtime rival Rider at Tippin Gym
• This will be the 22nd meeting between the Golden Eagles and the Broncs, with Rider owning a 17-4 record in the series. Clarion, however, has won each of the last two meetings contested at home.
• Greg Bulsak opened his season with a pair of victories against Navy wrestlers last week, including a decision over nationally-ranked Jacob Koser during the dual with the Midshipmen.
• Mike Vernagallo is set to crack the dual lineup against the Broncs one week after earning a tech fall over Navy's Gary Eakin
• Both Kolby Ho and John Worthing recorded wins at 165 pounds against Navy, eaching winning by decision
• The Golden Eagles return two NCAA qualifiers from last year's squad, including NWCA All-American Greg Bulsak (197) and Ty Bagoly (285)
• 2018 NCAA qualifier Tate Ortz returns this year and will wrestle at 157 pounds
• Head coach Keith Ferraro enters his seventh year at the helm, and has led the Golden Eagles to three consecutive dual match seasons with a .500 record or better
• Clarion went 7-4 in MAC competition last season, while Rider was the MAC East division champion with a 7-1 record
• The Golden Eagles have gone 8-4 in home duals over the last three years 

The Lead
The Clarion wrestling team will try to even their season record in their 2021 Mid-American Conference opener, when they host longtime rival Rider at Tippin Gym on Saturday, Jan. 16. The first bout is set to start at 2 p.m.

Series History
This will be the 22nd meeting between these former Eastern Wrestling League (EWL) rivals, with Rider owning a dominant 17-4 edge in the all-time series. The teams met for the first time in the 1997-98 season, a 22-15 win for the Broncs, and Rider won the first three meetings before Clarion broke through with a 19-15 win during the 2000-01 campaign.

Defending Home Turf Against the Broncs
Where recent history has been kinder to Clarion, though, are in the last two times the Golden Eagles hosted the Broncs. Rider last competed in Tippin Gym during the 2015-16 season, when Clarion defeated them in dramatic fashion. Zach DeLuca pinned Mauro Correnti in the heavyweight bout as the Golden Eagles dropped the nationally-ranked Broncs 24-15. 

The next time the Broncs came to Clarion they wrestled in Marwick-Boyd Auditorium, but the results in 2017-18 were oddly reminiscent of that previous bout. The Golden Eagles trailed 17-12 heading into the heavyweight bout, but Toby Cahill put them on top by tossing Correnti and pinning him to push Clarion to an 18-17 victory over a nationally-ranked foe.

Adjusted Format
Matches during the 2020-21 season will look different to longtime Golden Eagle fans, as teams will also contest extra matches during and after the main dual. The main dual will occur at 2 p.m. while additional matches will occur on an adjacent mat in the main gym. After the conclusion of the dual, the teams will then feature wrestlers from the dual taking on counterparts from their opponents, though these matches will not impact the result of the original dual.

About the Coach
Keith Ferraro, a native of Brookville, is in his seventh year as Clarion's head wrestling coach in 2020-21. He has been integral in elevating the Golden Eagles back into the national spotlight.

The Golden Eagle program has made tremendous strides under Ferraro's tutelage, with perhaps no more telling figure than the number of NCAA qualifiers the Golden Eagles have produced.  The team that Ferraro took over in 2014-15 went 1-16 in dual matches and sent no wrestlers to the NCAA Championships.  The Golden Eagles have produced multiple NCAA qualifiers in every year since then, including four in 2017-18, tied for the most in a single season since the Golden Eagles sent five wrestlers to the 2004 Championships. Clarion has had 13 NCAA qualifiers in the last six years.

The Golden Eagles have rebounded to become leaders in the classroom as well as the wrestling room.  Clarion was recognized by the NCAA as being in the top 10 percent of the Academic Progress Rate (APR) report in both 2018-19 and 2019-20, the only wrestling program in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) to earn recognition in either year.  The Golden Eagles also led all of their former Eastern Wrestling League compatriots in number of EWL Scholar-Athletes in 2019, with 17 athletes on the list.

Bulsak, Bagoly Crack National Rankings
Clarion returns two NCAA qualifiers from a season ago, and both find themselves in the national conversation as the team readies for its second match of the year. 

• Three-time NCAA qualifier Greg Bulsak ranks among the best in the nation at 197 pounds, coming in at seventh according to TrackWrestling, 11th according to InterMat and ninth according to FloWrestling.

• First-time NCAA qualifier Ty Bagoly ranks 22nd in the nation at heavyweight, according to TrackWrestling. Bagoly would have competed in his first NCAA Championships last year, starting in the "pigtail" round.

Fast Start for Bulsak
Greg Bulsak entered the season as a consensus nationally-ranked contender, and his first weekend of the year did nothing to disabuse pollers of that assessment. The redshirt senior defeated Navy's 24th-ranked 197-pounder Jacob Koser by a 7-2 decision in the dual match, and then scored a 13-2 major decision over Malcolm Wiley in the extra matches.

Ortz Moves Up
After initially coming to Clarion as a 133-pounder in 2016-17 and qualifying for the NCAA Championships at 149 pounds in 2018, Tate Ortz found a home at 157 pounds last year and will look to lock that spot down for the 2020-21 season. The redshirt senior boasts a 42-25 career record spread out over three varsity weight classes, including the aforementioned trip to the NCAA Championships at 149 pounds and an injury-shortened stint at 141 pounds in 2018-19.

Ho Makes His Clarion Debut With Split
DuBois native Kolby Ho transferred to Clarion from George Mason earlier this school year and seized a spot in the starting lineup, opening the year as the Golden Eagles' 165-pounder in the lineup against Navy. A two-year starter for the Patriots at 157 pounds, Ho earned a split in his first action in the Blue & Gold, including a decision over Henry Hague last week. 

Vernagallo Moves Into Starting Role
Redshirt sophomore Mike Vernagallo is expected to make the start at 174 pounds this week after a promising performance against Navy last week. Vernagallo recorded one of Clarion's two bonus-point wins over the course of the afternoon, tech falling Gary Eakin in extra matches.