Although the Boonville Pirate wrestlers took it on the chin last night for their first conference loss of the season against the Marshall Owls 45-36, head coach Kyle Newham felt like his team competed well for the most part.
With a total of 10 matches for the night, the Owls secured the victory by winning six of the 10. However after leading 24-9 after the 135 pound weight class, the tables turned drastically for Boonville as Marshall came back with a pin at 140 to make it 24-15. And then what had to seem like a blur to the Pirates, the Owls came back with forfeits at 145 and 152.
While going from a nine-point deficit to a three point lead after the 152-pound weight class at 27-24, Marshall received another unexpected gift at 160 when senior Tyler Schanzmeyer was forced to forfeit the match due to a gash above his right eye.
The Pirate wrestlers didn’t go down without a fight, though. After junior Blake Stevens picked up a pin at 171 to cut the lead to three at 33-30, sophomore wrestler James Dowling came back with a forfeit at 189 to give Boonville the lead back at 36-33.
Unfortunately for Boonville that turned out to be the last win of the night as Marshall came back with wins at 215 and heavyweight for the victory.
While the loss dropped Boonville to 3-1 overall and 1-1 in the NCMC, Coach Newham said up until the two forfeits and one injury default the team wrestled pretty well.
“Even after that I thought we wrestled pretty well,” Newham said. “This was the first match coming back from a break and you can be a little sluggish but I didn’t see that. We saw some situations we need to improve on, however, that’s encouraging to start the second half. It’s an unfortunate thing for Tyler (Schanzmeyer) but I thought the momentum shifted to Marshall and they were able to take advantage of it.”
The night wasn’t a total loss for Boonville. At 103, freshman Josiah Searfoss picked up his first home win of the season by recording a pin against Marshall’s Greg Bledsoe in 1:25. Meanwhile, at 125, senior Shane Twenter picked up his 99th career win with a second-period pin against Josh Smith in 2:39.
The Boonslick YMCA Youth Wrestling Club hosted an exhibition dual with the Marshal Youth Wrestling Club last night before the high school dual.
Marshall brought their best including one state placer, Spencer Plummer, and two state qualifiers, Nicholas Hager and Ryan Henderson.
