Morning Journal/Matt Morrison Salem’s Cyle Burt works against West Branch’s Owen Bloss in 144-pound action Thursday.

SALEM– The Salem boys wrestling team won seven matches by pin and three by forfeit as it bulldozed past Eastern Buckeye Conference rival West Branch 71-6 on Thursday.

Although the Quakers captured the win it did not capture the EBC league title as Carrollton defeated Minerva 39-27 on Thursday to take the EBC title outright at 5-0, while Salem will finished in second place.

“We have never won anything in the EBC title wise or the Northeastern Buckeye Conference,” Salem coach Drew Hart said. “It is nice to be at the top of the conference.”

Salem improves to a 15-2 in dual matches and 4-1 in the EBC, while West Branch falls to 1-4 in the EBC.

The Quakers jumped out quick and had key pins that overwhelmed the Warriors, including a pin by Salem’s Cyle Burt over Owen Bloss at 144 pounds.

“This is my last match here in this gym,” Burt said. “I just wanted to wrestle my match and show off for the crowd.”

The Quakers have had a solid performance over the season it did not qualify for the state duals.

“It is unfortunate, but it is just the way they do it,” Hart said. “They decide it based on your performance at districts the year prior. We had some injuries that we dealt with at the end of the year last year and it kind of dropped us down.”

“Stuff happens,” Burt said. “We will just prove to them in the next coming tournament that we should be there.”

Although the Quakers won’t go to the state duals it will have a possibility to send several wrestlers to the state tournament.

“This year we have a chance to send nine or 10 kids through districts,” Hart said. “I think we have five total kids ranked in the state.”

The only match that West Branch came out with a win was when Michael Dorris pinned Aldin Weber at 126 pounds.

“Michael has really turned it on since he has came back from his broken leg,” said his father and West Branch coach Chris Dorris said. “He’s doing great and that is what we are hoping for.”

West Branch was once a household name in the sport of wrestling, but have since taken a step back to develop its younger squad.

“It is tough when you have seven or eight freshmen in the lineup,” Coach Dorris said. “I don’t care who you put out in front of anybody if you have seven or eight starting freshmen, naturally you are going to take some lumps especially against a junior and senior team (Salem) like this.”

The Warriors will continue to work on the simple techniques to build up.

“What we haven been working on the room is obviously all of our fundamentals,” Dorris said. “Just basics and making sure that we are wrestling solid.”

Salem will wrestle Cuyahoga Falls and then will have a break until the sectional tournament on Feb. 24.

“We have a duel tournament at Cuyahoga falls this weekend and then we are done until sectionals,” Hart said. “We just kind of relax those last two weeks and make sure no one is injured.”

West Branch will now prepare for duals against Boardman and Hubbard and then the sectional tournament.

“We have Boardman this week and Hubbard next week,” Dorris said. “Then we have sectionals. It is the best time of the year.

Both teams wrestle Saturday with Salem wat Cuyahoga Falls and West Branch at Boardman.

Salem 71, West Branch 6

106: Tyler German (Salem) pin Jackson McDonald, 4:59.

113: Jacob Dumont (Salem) pin Jeremy Ramsey, 5:22.

120: Ben Kuboff (Salem) pin Drake Coblenz, 1:51.

126: Michael Dorris (West Branch) pin Aldin Weber, 0:21.

132: Caleb Burt (Salem) dec. CJ Bonnot, 8-0.

138: Josh Mayhew (Salem) won by forfeit.

144: Cyle Burt (Salem) pin Owen Bloss, 3:38.

150: Shawn German (Salem) dec. Clayton Day, 15-3.

157: Will Harmon (Salem) won by forfeit.

165: Anthony Gomez (Salem) pin Jackson Shinn, 3:35.

175: Brandon Kana (Salem) pin Wyatt Blake, 0:24.

190: Aiden Stecker (Salem) pin Grady Rockwell, 1:50.

215: Ayden Patchin (Salem) dec. Gavin Hang, 3-1.

285: Trenton McCoy (Salem) won by forfeit.