Humbled by Homestead

The Patriots needed wins in each of the final three matches.

Not only did they need those victories; to catch the Spartans, the wins needed to come by pins.

The Spartans proved a worthy opponent.

Jay County High School’s wrestling team had its chance at a rally come up short on Thursday with a 37-24 loss to the Homestead Spartans.

“There was just a lot of places before that where we left points on the board,” said JCHS coach Eric Myers, whose Patriots dip to 25-3 on the year in dual matches. “We gave up pins when I don’t think we should have. That put a lot of pressure on our matches at the end. We were getting wins there, we needed bonus points and that’s a lot of pressure to put on those guys.

“I know they like that pressure, and they’re able to do that, but it’s tough to dig out of a hole like that.”

Tony Wood, a freshman ranked 11th in the state at 126 pounds, dropped down to 120 and earned an 8-3 decision over Giovanni Arsini to pull the Patriots within striking distance, 34-18.

In order to overtake the Spartans, the Patriots had to win each of the final three matches by pin to secure a two-point match victory.

But Nathan Houser prevented Ethan Reiley — he’s ranked 14th at 120 pounds — from pinning him in their 126-pound bout. Reiley won 13-7, making it 34-21 Homestead and guaranteeing the Spartans would win the dual.

Freshman Cameron Clark, who is seventh in the state at 132 pounds, had a 7-1 advantage over Jacob Miller in their bout. Miller scored a reversal, getting Clark in a headlock and then notched a two-point near fall to trim the margin to 7-5.

Clark earned three points in the third period for a 10-5 win.

“Cameron Clark looked pretty good,” Myers said. Clark’s win pulled the team score to 34-24. “Fought out of a scary situation where he was up pretty big. Gave up a headlock, was able to fight off that and come back and win pretty solidly.”

In the final match of the night, Homestead’s Easton Arsini got a late three-point near fall for a 5-4 win over R.J. Heskett to stop the Patriot comeback.

“We haven’t wrestled as a varsity team since (IHSWCA) Team State on (Jan. 2),” Myers said. “We looked like it. We looked like we were growing mold over the top of us.

“We definitely didn’t wrestle our best.”

Blake Pruett pinned Ryan Schoff with 56 seconds remaining in their 160-pound match for the Patriots’ first win of the day. Two bouts later, freshman Bryce Wenk had a 7-1 lead in the first period of his 182-pound match against Nolan Schoff. Visibly gassed in the second and third periods, Wenk gave up three points but fended off any late attack by Schoff to hang on for a 7-4 decision.

“He’s a tough kid,” Myers said of Wenk. “He’s hard-nosed and all the other cliche things I can say. He’s a determined kid, so whenever he’s tired he’s able to fight through those things.”

Freshman Cody Rowles got the other win on the night for Jay County. He pinned Conner Pederson just 56 seconds into their 106-pound match.

“He just continues to dominate,” Myers said. “(He) takes care of business.”

Jay County has a week to rebound from the setback before hosting the Allen County Athletic Conference duals Jan. 22 and then it begins the postseason Jan. 30.

“(This loss) is definitely something we can refocus ourselves,” Myers said. “We were probably flying a little bit high getting invited to team state and performing pretty well there.”

The Patriots, who at the time were ranked fifth in the state, finished third.

“Then we come out and kind of fall flat here,” Myers continued. “I think that gives us a lot to work on when we get back in the (wrestling) room and hopefully get us back on track for our conference tournament and state tournament series.”