Maples stun Rockets, 45-33
GREENSBORO — Since the return of the Mapletown wrestling program five years ago, the squad has been looking for that one marquee victory as a team.
In Wednesday’s Section 2-AA (2-A) contest, the Maples grabbed that signature win with a 45-33 upset of Jefferson-Morgan.
“This is a huge win for our program, the school and the community,” Mapletown coach Chris Shilk said. “This is what we have been building to. J-M has been the measuring stick in the section and in the county. I know their line-up is different from last year, but this is still a big night for our guys.”
The Maples (1-1, 1-1) were down 15-6 through four matches, but rallied back for the section triumph with a decision, two forfeits and four pins for the 12-point victory.
Even though both teams have different line-ups, Mapletown fell to J-M 72-3 last year.
“We are a young, up-and-coming program, and any time you beat a caliber team like Jefferson it’s huge,” Shilk said. “We knew we matched up with them and we knew this was going to test how we have grown as a program. We turned the tide and our kids wanted it really bad. Words can’t describe this feeling and I’m so happy for those kids.”
The Maples got on the board with a first-period pin by Noah Hixon at 113.
“Noah is a senior and he has been peaking at the right time,” Shilk said. “I knew when we drew 113 in the locker room that Noah was going to be ready. Noah is one of the few kids that came up through our JV program and has been with us since the beginning. His first-period pin set the tempo.”
The Rockets (0-2, 0-2) countered with 15 straight points, courtesy of a forfeit to Zach Tedrow at 120, a pin by Gavin Teasdale 15 seconds into 126 and a hard-fought 9-2 decision by Josh Agnew at 132.
At 138, Seth Shubert maintained his lead through three periods over Aaron Mylan and captured a 7-0 decision for Mapletown.
The Maples knotted the match up at 15-15 after a second-period pin by Kevin Hayes at 145 and took back the lead for good with back-to-back, first-period pins by Brandon Smotzer (152) and Cory Dewitt (160).
Sandwiched around two first-period falls by J-M’s Trevor Kniha (170) and Billy Bowlen (195) was a forfeit to Mapletown’s Gavin Uphold at 182.
Tanner Weston sealed the monumental victory for the Maples at 220 with a second-period fall at 2:38.
“We knew we had to get pins and couldn’t settle for decisions,” Shilk said. “Bonus points killed us last week against Beth-Center. Tanner got a big win and he brought the right mentality to the match. Tanner flipped over in the second period and capitalized on some mistakes for the pin.”
The match ended with a forfeit to Mapletown’s Harley Gee at 285 and another forfeit to J-M’s Mason Palmer at 106.
“Our kids are still young and they showed a lot of inexperience tonight,” J-M coach Mike Lesko said. “When they made one mistake, they folded and got pinned. We can’t be sad for each other and mope around. We have to build off of this. We had the right match-ups tonight, but give Mapletown some credit for getting those bonus points.”
The Rockets venture out to Derry Area on Friday for a non-subsection match, while the Maples head out to Moon for a tournament on Saturday.