Jan 20, 2011 By Adam Brewer For The 3 min read

JEFFERSON – For the third year in a row, Jefferson-Morgan defeated Greene County rival, West Greene in wrestling with a 51-15 decision in Section 2-AA Wednesday night.

Despite the Senior Night victory, the Rockets (7-4, 4-1) and coach Scott Rhodes are still looking to be more consistent.

“It’s a big rivalry because it’s in the county, and a lot of these kids know each other,” Rhodes said. “They were coming in missing three weights and were behind the eight-ball even before we got started. Our boys could have wrestled a lot better. Some of them were sloppy and just going through the motions. We have some kids that are sick or banged up, but you have to suck it up and keep improving as the season is coming to the end.”

Going into the match, both teams had already qualified for next week’s WPIAL Section 2-AA Championships. The time and location of the match is still to be determined.

The Pioneers (3-4, 3-2) had a bit of the injury bug coming into the contest, as several of its starters were out due to injury or sickness.

“We just like to get everybody healthy before next week,” Pioneers’ coach Curt Hughes said. “We would like to add more weights, but we just don’t have enough bodies. We have to work as hard as we can and focus. When you get one injury, you always seem to get more and it piles up on you.”

The first bout of the evening was at 119, where J-M’s Layne Estel recorded a 4-3 decision over Wade Blackmon in a hard-fought battle.

At 125, A.J. Agnew was credited with a fall at 1:32 to give the Rockets a 15-0 advantage.

West Greene’s Derrik Courtwright suffered a shoulder injury 14 seconds into his bout with Shane Black. Courtwright couldn’t continue and had to be carted out of the gym on a stretcher, and Black gained the injury default win.

There was no match at 135, but the Pioneers were finally able to crack the scoreboard after a pin by Jacob Durbin at the five minute mark of the 140 bout.

“Jacob has been around for a lot of years,” Hughes said. “He always seems to wrestle with confidence and is very under control. That’s a typical match for him.”

Matthew Johnston (145) helped West Greene trimmed the deficit to 21-12 after posting a pin at 1:31.

In the match of the night, J-M’s T.J. Harkins was able to persevere in the 152-pound bout against Wade Durbin with a 7-4 decision in the third overtime period.

“We kept on emphasizing to him that he is a senior and that it could possibly be his last match at home,” Rhodes said. “He wanted to go out on top, and he came through at the end of the match. He was tired and has been out for us for at least a month. He lost track of his weight over Christmas break, and hopefully he can regroup and get back into mat shape going into sectionals.”

The Rockets continued to roll, as Quincy Hathaway tallied a 15-4 major decision at 160. Dustin Conti (171) issued a 17-2 technical fall, followed by a pin by Joe Phillips (189) at the 1:41 mark.

The Pioneers totaled their last points of the evening, as Cody Jacobs recorded a 3-2 decision over Tyler Perkins at 215.

Brian Rush gave J-M its last fall of the night, with a pin 27 seconds into his bout.

The Rockets’ John Demaske (103) and Jason Miller (112) wrapped up the win with forfeits.