Backyard Brawl sees a loss spin a win for Knights
Following a stunning 45-30 loss to Northwestern in this quad match-up in which the Knights faced Northwestern and Waynedale, the Knights responded by toppling powerful Waynedale 35-30 by winning the final two matches of the evening, which just happened to include 2010 State qualifiers Max Rohskopf and Justin Stitzlein.
But it wasn't the finishing touches these two wrestlers put forth to clinch the win that had Woods gushing after the match, but rather the effort of junior Zed Fry, who got a spectacular pin against Christopher Richard in the 120 pound weight division, and the effort of junior Lane Darr, who, despite getting bloodied seconds into his match with Waynedale superstar Zack Nelson at 126, hung around for the entire nine minute match, limiting Nelson to a 14-9 decision.
"Even though Darr lost, he showed some real fight," said Woods. "Nelson's a top-rated wrestler. Lane didn't back down, and went after him. He fought and he didn't quit. A wrestler shows that and loses, I'm not going to be mad. That match kept us in the meet until we got to our big guns."
As for Fry, the lanky junior was nearly pinned a couple of times, but rebounded to get the night's biggest pin in the third round against Richard.
His effort epitomized the performance for the Knights in the nightcap.
"I was proud of the guys," said Woods. "We were talking in the corner while we were busy getting shellacked by Northwestern, it's been 20 years, my first year at West Holmes, since we have been beaten that badly. Triway beat the heck out of us. They had two State champs that year, and they just throttled us. That's about as bad as we've been beaten top to bottom over the past 20 years.
"Our kids could have folded the tents, but they didn't. They showed some character out there tonight. I'm proud of them. They fought and never gave up, and that's character."
Woods went on to note that his team 20 years ago responded after their beat-down, and they did not forget that feeling, going on to much better things because of it. He hopes that this loss will do the same thing for this year's squad.
"The only time that a loss is bad is when you don't learn something from it," said Woods.
The Knights apparently did take the loss to heart, because they came out with a vengeance against Waynedale. Golden Bears coach Louie Stanley said that he saw a change in attitude with the Knights coming into the match, and he said that any good team coming off a loss like that is dangerous.
"They didn't want to go down 0-2 after losing to Northwestern," said Stanley. "That was a little disadvantage for us. I think they were a little unhappy after that first loss, and we were coming off a pretty easy win against Triway."
The match between two of the areas top wrestling schools proved to be a very spirited match, with fans from both sides becoming quite vocal as the match progressed and stakes grew with each decision. In the end, while each team won the matches they should have won, it was the ones that were teetering on the fence that made the difference, and Stanley said that the Bears came up short there.
"You've got to be on top of your game every match," Stanley said. "We won a couple tight ones early, and won most of the ones we had to win. But a couple of those matches that can go either way, we lost two of them. In wrestling, you've got to win the tight decisions," he added. "A couple of those matches, we're pinning them and then they pin us, and that's a 12-point swing."
Early on it appeared as though the Knights did not get the message about learning from defeat. Beginning the match at 160, Bears' Brenden Stanley decisioned Marshall Overholt 4-3 in a great dual. Stanley's teammate, Zeb Beam, then won by fall over Grayson Miller for a 9-0 Waynedale lead. That grew to 15-0 when Josh Strausbaugh decisioned Matt Schlegel at 182 and Mark Gingerich followed suit with a 12-9 decision over Conway Baldridge.
But from there on out, things turned around for Wet Holmes. Ray O'Donnell won by forfeit at 220, then Tyler Singleton won by fall over David Wellman to make it 15-12. When the meet bounced back to the light end of the weight divisions, and 106-pound Knights sophomore Tyler Nichols earned a 7-5 decision over Tyler Wirth, the teams were locked up at 15.
West Holmes jumped to its first lead at 113, with senior Tyler Brown scoring an 18-1 technical fall win over Waynedale's Dillan Galehouse for a 20-15 Knights lead. When Fry turned the tables and got his fall, West Holmes lead 26-15, but the Golden Bears big guns were on deck. Nelson toppled Darr, before Waynedale's Bradley Wardell pinned Charlie Evans in just 39 seconds to cut the lead to 26-24 in favor of the Knights.
Zane Nelson then finished off Zach Mullet in 20 seconds to post a 30-26 Waynedale lead.
But as fate would have it on this night, the luck of the draw saw the meet end with West Holmes sending its two top wrestlers to the mat to secure the victory.
"I couldn't have scripted that any better if I tried," said Woods.
He watched as Rohskopf took care of Dakota Stanley with a fall at 5:16, then it was Stitzlein's turn, and the senior didn't disappoint, earning a 5-0 decision which saw Waynedale's Jared Orr on the bottom most of the match.
While Woods was elated with the resurgent Knights, Stanley saw a golden opportunity for the Golden Bears to sneak out of Knights Country with a win.
After dominating the Backyard Brawl for a decade, Waynedale has now dropped the past two meets against West Holmes in close fashion.
"The bottom line is, you've got to get it done. There's not a lot of coaching or technique that goes into it. It's just a matter of sucking it up and getting it done," Stanley said. "That heart factor, that perseverance. That's what we're looking for in our wrestlers. You throw everything out the window when you get some brawls in front of a crazy crowd sometimes. It comes down to absolutely refusing to lose. And we didn't do that tonight."
Waynedale did take care of Triway in quick fashion, earning a 60-18 win.
Published: December 7, 2011
