BUTLER TWP — The dual match itself was just a formality.

The real challenge lies ahead for Butler’s wrestling team, which easily dispatched Moon, 55-18, in a WPIAL Class AAA team tournament play-in match Monday night. The Tigers (6-7) forfeited three weight classes.

The Golden Tornado (12-3) received pins from Cameron Weisenstein at 113 pounds, Caleb Baxter at 170, Christian Sequete at 182, Tom Greaves at 195 and Seth McCrea at 285 pounds.

Now Butler travels to Waynesburg for a dual at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Seneca Valley takes on Franklin Regional at Waynesburg as well.

“Waynesburg has been a top tier program for a long time,” Butler coach Scott Stoner said. “Every kid in that program takes the sport very seriously.

“They don’t just want to win. They want to rip your arm off and beat you with it. That’s the mentality. But (won-loss) record wise, we do match up with them. We’ll see what happens.”

Plenty of positives happened Monday night.

The dual with Moon started at 220 pounds and the Tornado took immediate control as Saavon Mosby won by a 13-3 decision and McCrea pinned his foe in less than two minutes.

Stoner opted to forfeit the 106-pound match to Moon’s top wrestler — Frankie Bonura (25-1) — and moved Weisenstein into the 113-pound match.

“Cam weighs maybe 99 pounds and we knew he’d be giving up 12 or 13 pounds to his opponent,” Stoner admitted. “That’s a big difference at that weight class.

“But we wanted to challenge Cam and he responded.”

Weisenstein trailed Mitch McCoy 4-1 in the second period when he scored a sudden reverse and pin with 16 seconds left in the second period.

“I didn’t think I was going to wrestle (Bonura),” Weisenstein said. “I was able to get a hip and elbow roll and got on top when I was losing.

“Once I get on top, I expect to finish it off and get the pin.”

Weisenstein (12-10) recorded his sixth pin of the campaign and the Tornado were on their way.

“They have a solid team,” Moon coach Mike Muraco said of Butler. “It looks like they have a lot of team unity. They get excited when each other does well.

“We haven’t had a wrestler at those weight classes (120, 126 and 132 pounds) all year. That makes it tough, but a lot of our guys showed improvement tonight and that’s encouraging.”

Moon won the two closest bouts of the evening. Nick Acuna (21-4) scored a takedown with seconds left to secure a 3-0 decision over Scotty Dietrich (21-5) at 138 and Zach Smith’s takedown with 22 seconds remaining produced a 2-1 decision over the Tornado’s Justin Stewart at 152.

Sequete (9-0) pinned a quality opponent in Austin McConaghy at 182.

“Christian scored a quick takedown and assumed immediate control,” Stoner said. “He dominated a pretty good kid.

“That’s the kind of aggressiveness we’ve been trying to generate. We showed some of it tonight.”

Butler 55, Moon 18

(Match started at 220 pounds)

106-Frankie Bonura (M) by forfeit; 113-Cameron Weisenstein (B) pinned Mitch McCoy, 3:44; 120-Colton Spohn (B) by forfeit; 126-Jack Codispot (B) by forfeit; 132-Nathan McDonald (B) by forfeit; 138-Nick Acuna (M) dec. Scotty Dietrich 3-0; 145-Sammy Dietrich (B) dec. Mike Bates 9-5; 152-Zach Smith (M) dec. Justin Stewart 2-1; 160-Jamal Littlejohn (M) pinned Robert Hays, 3:51; 170-Caleb Baxter (B) pinned Robert Vitale,1:31; 182-Christian Sequete (B) pinned Austin McConaghy, 2:46; 195-Tom Greaves (B) pinned Alec Yochym, 2:43; 220-Saavon Mosby (B) dec. Christian Tanner 13-3; Hwt.-Seth McCrea (B) pinned Dominic Bolden, 1:31