Patriots rally vs. Southside

The Patriots faced an early deficit, losing three of Thursday's first four matches by pin. But six victories in the next eight matches was enough to bring them back.

Matt James' major decision put the Jay County High School wrestling team ahead for good as it knocked off the visiting Muncie Southside Rebels 41-34.

James, a senior, dominated Casey Vance in the 215-pound match, rolling to a 12-1 victory. He pushed the Patriots (4-4) from a one-point deficit to a 31-28 advantage, and Kyler Blowers came up with another major decision in the heavyweight match.

Blowers, also a senior, beat Daniel Mojica 12-4 to make the lead seven points and put the match out of reach. Southside's Tyler Rigney pinned Robert Cooper in the 103-pound match to make the score 35-34, but the Rebels forfeited to Skyler Sibery at 112 for the final margin.

Sophomore Eric Beougher (160) turned in the quickest pin for JCHS, finishing of Brady Turner in just 1 minute, 5 seconds.

His victory was part of a run of four pins in five matches that got the Patriots back into the match.

Nick Leonhard (145) pinned Jake Drummer in 1:57, Dyllan Derrickson (140) controlled Peter Jett throughout and won in 2:29 and Daniel Ring came up with a big third-period pin against Chris Daugherty in 4:27.

Drake Meska (130) turned in a 9-1 major decision against Zack Douthitt.

Muncie Southside got four pins to go along with Rigney's with Jacob Armantrout (119) topping Dustin Tighe in 1:01, Isaiah Bradley (125) beating Chase Louck in 3:54, Jordan Armantrout (135) defeating Hai Hong in 2:37 and Cory Crabtree (189) win over Kyle Garringer in 3:03.

The Rebels' other win came from Jacob Reed (152) by a 15-3 major decision over Heng Hong.

Junior varsity

Jay County won five of the six matches to top the Rebels by a score of 30-6.

Zach Fellers led the Patriots by scoring a pin over Nick Meer in just 28 seconds in the heavyweight division. Blake Crouch (152) added a pin against Sam Nealy in 1 minute, 15 seconds.

Other pins came from Lucas Wiemer (145), Ritchie Keen (160) and Lucas Boyer (215).

Southside's lone victory came from Lee Reyes (HWT) in 44 seconds over Jake Boyer.[[In-content Ad]]