Work to do

The Patriots and Bulldogs were trading matches back-and-forth.

The home team seemed primed to take its first lead of the night.

It only took a few moments for that would-be lead to slip away, and the rest of the match went along with it.

Jay County High School’s wrestling team dropped seven consecutive matches, four of them by pin, as it lost its season opener 49-24 Tuesday to Centerville.

“We knew their ’38, ’45, ’52, ’60, they’ve got a bunch of tough guys in those middle weights, so we needed to get some of those lighter weight ones,” said JCHS coach Eric Myers. “I thought we had a six there and then it turned into a six for them in a matter of seconds.

“We just had a few things that didn’t go our way. I really felt like at the end of the day that match was closer than the score ended up being, but it’s still a loss. We’ve got some work to do.”

With the match tied at 12 after four consecutive pins, Brian Newman of the Patriots (0-1) seemed in control at 132 pounds. He used a single leg takedown in the opening period to take the lead, then slipped his head out of Luke Cannarella’s control to get a reversal with one second remaining in the second period for a 4-0 lead.

Newman held that advantage for most of the third period before giving up a takedown and then a three-point near fall with just 10 seconds left as Cannarella rallied for a 5-4 win.

“Hat’s off to Luke Cannarella,” said Centerville coach Mike Day. “He did a great job for us. To come back and win was great.

“When his effort improved, the match improved.”

That victory propelled the Bulldogs, who proceeded to take the next four matches by pin. Graham Butler beat Ben Hunter in 1:46 at 138 pounds, Devin Frazier finished off Camron Gage in 2:45 at 145 pounds, seventh-ranked Gabe Phillips defeated Nate Paxson in 27 seconds at 152 pounds and Tyler Vredeveld fought off a Garrett Mann rally from a 10-3 deficit for a pin in 5:49 at 160 pounds.

Victories of 6-4 by Luke Tinkle (170) over Ryan Herring and 11-2 by Leo Calderon (182) over George Lykins put Centerville up 46-12 before three-time state medalist Mason Winner stopped the bleeding at 195 pounds.

Winner, who is ranked third in the state at 182, made quick work of Dylan Cole, pinning him in just 1:01.

Ramon Bravo (220) then gave the Patriots back-to-back victories as he finished off Memphis Lee in 1:31.

“He’s a really hard-working kid,” said Myers. “Sometimes you have a kid in the practice room that wrestles really hard and is just a stud in the practice room and doesn’t quite have that edge on the mat.

“He’s the opposite. He wrestles hard (in practice), but he’s a different guy whenever he goes on the mat.”

Sophomore Dylan Garringer’s pin tied the match at 12 for JCHS before the streak of Centerville victories. He got a quick takedown and near fall just 30 seconds into the match for a 5-0 lead and was up 7-3 when he pinned Mylan Nocton in the 126-pound match.

Ethan Reiley made a strong high school debut in his 113-pound match against Jackson Marker. He scored his first points on a takedown just 28 seconds into the match and spent most of the rest of his time on the mat working a half nelson until recording a pin with just one second left in the opening period.

“We talk about breaking a guy,” said Myers. “Sometimes guys run that half and wrist and it doesn’t work, and they go to something else. What he did is just keep running it, keep running it, wear their neck out and eventually they just get sick of fighting it.”

Suffering other losses for JCHS were Lizzie Dollar (106) by a pin in 1:02 to Bryson Hale, Jayden Maymi (120) by pin in 3:22 to Andrew Wilmot and Cooper Jacks (HWT) by a 5-2 decision to Sebastian Collins.

Jay County dropped three of the four junior varsity matches. The lone victory came as Logan Kelley pinned Hannah Stapulton in 29 seconds at 160 pounds.