Eagles hold off Jay (12/15/05)

It was just too much to ask.

Jay County needed pins from each of its final four wrestlers Wednesday night. The Patriots won all four matches, with pins in three, and fell short against the Oak Hill Golden Eagles 40-37.

“I’m disappointed,” said JCHS coach James Myers. “We knew it was going to be close. It’s always close when we wrestle those guys. They’re a good team and one match swung it.”

The Patriots (7-3) trailed 40-16 with four matches remaining, thus needing pins in each of the final four bouts to tie the score.

Bill Spahr (171), the No. 7 ranked wrestler in the state, got the effort off on the right foot by finishing off Bob Davis in 2-minutes, 13 seconds. Tom Smith (189), Nathan Conatser (215) and Jason Crouch (HWT) each followed with victories, but only two pins.

Smith controlled Jared Jenkins the entire way in his win, taking a quick 2-0 lead and pushing to a 4-1 advantage after the first period. However, he couldn’t find a way to put together a pinning combination and settled for an 8-3 win.

Conatser pinned Gerry Sigworth in 4:31, and Crouch topped Andy Garrett in the quickest Patriot pin of the night in 1:53, but it was not enough for a comeback after the team fell behind big early on.

Oak Hill coach Andrew King said he expected his team to get a win in the opening 103-pound match, but instead Jay County’s Casey Kenney pinned Chandler Stagg in 3:44. However, he was thrilled with the way his team came back to win seven of the next nine matches, including four in a row from 112-130 pounds.

“I thought it would be pretty tough at that point in time,” said King of the 103-pound defeat. “But we had some young men really step up tonight that really hadn’t shown it that much all year long. Jay County’s tough ... they’re a good team. We were fortunate to wrestle as well as we did tonight.”

Both coaches said the team result truly turned in the 152-pound match between Jay County’s Matt Daniels and Kyle Paige of the Golden Eagles (5-4).

Daniels was in control quickly, tossing Paige to the mat in 25 seconds and quickly turning it into a near fall for a 5-0 lead. But he couldn’t convert the pin and was called for an illegal headlock with 1:11 on the first-period clock.

The Daniels advantage increased to 9-2 at the end of the opening period, leaving the Patriot senior seemingly in control. Paige had other ideas, gaining the upper hand early in the second period and turning what looked like a sure defeat into a six-point win with a pin in 2:44.

“There was a huge swing in that match alone,” said King. “That was the match.”

Myers agreed: “We had several guys on their backs that we didn’t finish,” he said. “There were just a couple of matches where if we pin those guys we don’t have to worry about the match score really.

“Matt was wrestling well until he got caught. Casey Kenney has wrestled well back-to-back nights. We’ve got bright spots, but we’ve got some work we need to do before this weekend and next weekend.”

Jay County will compete in the Twin Lakes Invitational Saturday before hosting the East Central Indiana Classic Jan. 22.

Sixth-ranked Kurt Hess (145) added a win by pin for the Patriots, giving them five on the night. He topped Alex Linna in 4:37.

Nathan Daniels (135) scored the other Jay County win by a 17-9 score over Williams Cleland.[[In-content Ad]]