When it came to the close matches, the Oconto Falls High School wrestlers took care of business. That made all the difference.
The Panthers won three consecutive matches – from 132 to 145 pounds – by three points or less and built a comfortable lead over Denmark on Friday night. Up 30-12, Oconto Falls held off a late Vikings rally to earn a 36-27 victory in a Bay Conference dual at Oconto Falls.
The win puts Oconto Falls at 3-0 in conference.
“We’re always glad to get a win, but it wasn’t our sharpest night,” Oconto Falls tri-head coach Marc Kinziger said. “We were giving up points, the pin at heavyweight, and we looked a little sloppy at 220, and he’s a freshman. At 170, we didn’t look good. … It wasn’t our best win. Glad to get it.”
Kinziger thinks the inconsistent wrestling by some of his guys was the result of looking ahead to Oconto Falls’ 16-team invitational Saturday.
“It’s easy to see why the attention wasn’t 100 percent, but it started back in the weight room where one kid didn’t make weight, one guy weighed in at the wrong weight,” Kinziger said. “That limits our lineup and it was by more veteran wrestlers. It shouldn’t have been happening.”
With the score tied 6-6 two matches in, Bryce Ash (132) scored a big win over Denmark’s Hunter Tenor. Ash trailed 5-3 in the second period, but ran off five straight points to take an 8-5 lead into the final two minutes. Tenor regained the lead at 10-9, but Ash earned a reversal with 11 seconds remaining and pulled out a 13-10 victory.
“That was very smart, heads up wrestling,” Kinziger said. “It shouldn’t have got to that point, but the kid was beating him on the feet, so it was a smart move for him to go reversal, near fall instead of escape, takedown. That was a little bit of a surprise.”
Ash was happy with the win but knows he shouldn’t have had to work for it so much.
“I should have been a lot lower than I was. If he wouldn’t have been taking me down, it wouldn’t have been as close,” Ash said. “I’ve got to keep working on that. It just shouldn’t have been as close as it was.”
Brett Ash also tallied a tight win at 138 vs. Duncyn Neta. Ash also had a third-period reversal to pull out a 4-3 decision to put Oconto Falls up 12-6.
In the best matchup on paper, Oconto Falls’ Nate Trepanier, rated No. 9 in Division 2 in the state at 145, faced Denmark’s Hunter Warden, who is an honorable mention ranking. Trepanier controlled nearly the entire match, leading 3-0 until late in the third. Warden nearly eked out a victory, but Trepanier came away with an important 3-2 win.
“He got the first takedown and then he hung on, hung on, hung on – that’s his M.O.,” Kinziger said. “He wrestled a very smart match for 5 minutes, 45 seconds and then with 15 left where he just tried to do too much. He could have just given up the takedown and the guy would have had to let him go again rather than go from feet to back, you can’t make that mistake.”
Denmark coach Tim Kapinos knows the 145 showdown could have swung the entire match.
“That one came down to the last couple of seconds, a close call,” Kapinos said. “It was a questionable call at the end, but I told our guy, ‘We can’t let it come down to those last couple seconds.’ When two guys like that go head-to-head it’s going to be close, and we’ve just got to hope to come out on top next time.”
The Panthers scored four pins on the night, the most important coming at 106. With Oconto Falls clinging to a 30-21 lead and two matches left, Evan Konitzer came up big. He built a 10-point, second-period lead before finishing off Denmark’s Ryan Degrand with two seconds left in the second.
“We kind of talked to the heavyweight and said, ‘If you don’t get pinned, it looks pretty good.’ But then he gets pinned and puts a little pressure on 106,” Kinziger said. “Evan went out and wrestled a good match with the pressure on him and sealed us the win there. We knew what was coming at 113, probably their best wrestler.”
Oconto Falls’ other pins were by No. 5-ranked Sam Konitzer (126) over Raul Becerra, 0:53; No. 1-ranked Dewey Krueger (152) over Max Schmitz, 3:04; and Kyle Wolf (195) over Adam Bergelin, 3:08.
Wolf had been out of school the previous two days fighting the flu. His courageous effort on the mat went a long way in his team’s victory.
“You could see it was already starting to affect him. If he would have had to go six minutes, that would have been interesting, because he was battling it,” Kinziger said.
Oconto Falls’ other victory on the night came from Mac Winkler (182), who downed Matt VandenHeuvel, 11-4.
Categories
