Butler’s Santino Sloboda defeats Trinity’s Dom Canali 4-0 in a 127-pound final at the WPIAL Class 3A Boys Wrestling Individual Championships Feb. 21 at Canon-McMillan High School. Sloboda will wrestle in the state quarterfinals on Friday. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle

Rob McGraw

Butler senior wrestler Santino Sloboda opened his final appearance at the PIAA Class 3A Championships by posting a 5-3 decision over Bethlehem Catholic’s Andre Cerrato in a 127-pound first-round bout at the Giant Center in Hershey on Thursday.

Sloboda took a 5-0 lead thanks to a takedown 26 seconds into the first period and a reversal early in the second before withstanding Cerrato’s rally.

Now 44-1 on the season, Sloboda will take on Frank Leanza of Manheim Township in a quarterfinal Friday morning.

Another Butler senior, Sutton Stoner, saw his varsity career come to an end with a pair of defeats.

In the 160-pound bracket, Stoner lost in the preliminary round to Parkland’s Jorge Moya via technical fall. In the first round of consolations, he was pinned by Eastern Lebanon County’s Klint Miller.

Stoner compiled a record of 35-13 this season.

Class 2A — Slippery Rock’s Zac Turberville was trailing Canton’s Carson Rockwell 2-0 entering the third period of a first-round bout at 160 pounds.

But the Rockets’ senior managed an escape, then a takedown with 54 seconds left in a 4-2 victory.

Turberville (38-5) will face Bishop McCort’s Melvin Miller, the No. 1 seed, in a quarterfinal Friday morning.

Girls — Seneca Valley’s Hannah Hornick rebounded from an 11-0 loss to Souderton’s MacKenna Atkinson in the 190-pound first round.

She dominated Central Dauphin East’s Arshley Coulange in the first round of consolations, scoring an early takedown and four near-fall points before earning a pin in the second period.

Hornick (23-12) will wrestle Friday afternoon against the loser of a quarterfinal bout between Central Dauphin’s Ashley Hoffman and Charli Rea from Northwestern.