Falcons flatten Jay County (12/10/04)

PORTLAND — Jay County freshman Justin Mann took a quick 2-0 lead in the opening match Thursday night. But, that marked the one and only time all night the Patriots had the team lead in the match.

Mann ended up falling to fellow freshman Steve Dossett and the Patriot wrestling team dropped a 46-22 decision to the Winchester Golden Falcons.

Winchester coach Ron Anderson credited Dossett, who just earned his starting spot in the varsity lineup Wednesday, with one of the biggest wins of the night.

Dossett rallied in the first period against Mann, who was in the lineup at 130 pounds for the injured Kade Poore, to take a 6-4 lead. He went ahead 10-5 before pinning Mann in 4-minutes, 19 seconds for his first career victory.

“It was a team effort obviously, it always is when you win. But I’m sure happy for (Dossett),” said Anderson. “This was his first varsity match. To come through, that was a good one.”

Jay County’s Devon Huftel and Winchester’s Caleb Abel went at it in the most exciting match of the night, with Abel eking out a 6-5 victory.

The match was deadlocked at two after one period, and Abel held a slim 4-3 lead late in the second. But, Huftel scored a takedown as the second period buzzer sounded and was awarded two points for a 5-4 lead.

Abel started the third period in the down position and scored a reversal 55 seconds in to pull ahead again. Several times in the final minute Huftel looked like he had an escape, but each time Abel reeled him back in to hold on to the victory.

“It was a very, very crucial match,” said Anderson. “Certainly the match was in doubt at that point. That gave us a little momentum. ... That certainly helped relieve a little pressure there.”

The victory by Abel gave Winchester (8-1) wins in five of the first six matches. Bill Spahr (171) broke the run with a pin of Nick Tharp in 47 seconds, but the Golden Falcons won the next three to build a 34-12 lead.

Jay County coach James Myers agreed that the 130 and 160 pound matches were big, especially with the lineup changes. Huftel was bumped up a weight class for his match as the team also tied to compensate for the loss of Robert Ralston to a knee injury.

“If we could’ve swung another match or two ...,” Myers thought out loud about the possibilities. “Huftel with 30 seconds to go put himself in a position to win the match. He wrestled well. Abel is a good wrestler. We knew the match could go either way.”

Despite the tremendous effort from Huftel and wins from Spahr, Kurtis Hess (145) and Josh Thornburg (112), the Patriots fell victim to four pins after giving up six to Muncie Southside last week.

Tilmon Clark, the No. 12 125-pounder in the state, topped Cody Sutton in 26 seconds in the fastest match of the night. Jordan Winkle (189) pinned Rodney Cassell in 2:35, and Matt Nunez (HVY) defeated Jason Crouch in 3:25.

“(That’s) four too many in my opinion,” said Myers of the pins. “It’s the little things. Again we’re putting ourselves in bad positions, not getting any control.

“Hats off to Winchester. They really wrestled well.”

Other Winchester victories came from Matt Terhaar (135) by a 7-1 decision over Nathan Daniels, Shay Sells (140) by a 10-4 decision over Micah Enyart, Caleb Hedden (152) by an 11-2 major decision over Matt Daniels and Ron Harris by an 8-2 decision over Nathan Conatser.

Hess joined Spahr as the only Jay County grapplers to score pins, finishing off Zeb Doss in 3:05. Thornburg shut out Jordan Jones for a 9-0 major decision.

Jay County and Winchester split Wednesday’s junior varsity matches.

The Patriots’ Brad Tipton (152) pinned Israel Lewis in 3:03, and Tom Smith (189) finished off Zach Degg quickly in 30 seconds. Sam Hunt (215) of the Golden Falcons pinned Thomas Shrack in 1:09, and his teammate Jacob Oswalt (215) topped Michael Cline in 1:03.[[In-content Ad]]