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Patriots put up a good showing at South Classic Duals

South matmen get clipped by LaSalle

Photo by Steve Hemmelgarn Louden Haga (left) of Parkersburg South and Methacton’s Tonee Ellis battle for position in a heavyweight wrestling match during the South Classic Duals Saturday at the Rod Oldham Athletic Center.

PARKERSBURG — For Parkersburg South, it — as usual — was pin after wrestling pin Saturday for the host Patriots in the South Classic Duals at the Rod Oldham Athletic Center.

That is until the Patriots’ final match of the day, pitting South versus Cincinnati LaSalle in a duel of multiple-time state mat champions from West Virginia and Ohio respectively.

And it was quite a battle, although LaSalle won out 37-29 in the end, leaving Patriot head coach Shaun Smith nevertheless “discouaraged” with the outcome, but knowing that his team’s performance Saturday showed “we’re pretty obviously capable of competing with a team like that.”

LaSalle came into Saturday’s duals meet at South, the reigning Class AAA state champion, with an 11th ranking nationally, while the Patriots were perched at No. 24. “This was a really good stepping stone for our program to wrestle a team like that pretty much on an even scale like we did today,” said Smith.

“I’m proud of the kids because most of them wrestled hard and they gutted out some wins. I’m frustrated though too because we had another chance against a nationally-ranked team this year, but came up short.”

After South downed Spring Mills 77-5, George Washington 64-9, Mechacton from Pennsylvania 69-6 and Brooke 84-0, the Patriots came up against the LaSalle Lancers.

In the opening 170-pound match, South’s Zane Hinzman nearly got pinned, but eventually lost a 10-8 decision, after which were two more decisions in LaSalle’s favor.

Then Patriot Braxton Amos at 220 just kept piling up the points en route to a 17-2 win, followed by South heavyweight Louden Haga being disqualified after dropping his rival on his head, not intentionally though said the ref, that stopped the match and gave the Lancer grappler a victory.

Three more LaSalle wins at 106, 113 and 120 upped the Lancer team scoring advantage to 31-17.

At 126, Brayden Roberts notched a three-overtime 3-2 win and Gavin Quiocho at 132 also secured an OT victory to slice the team score gap to 31-23.

Luke Martin at 138 won by pin to still narrow the team gap even more at 31-29. But a pinfall by LaSalle at 145 made the final score just an eight-point, 37-29, deficit.

Smith is “now looking forward to the rest of the season. Hopefully, we continue to wrestle well and can come out on top again at the end of the season.”

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