Saturday, January 31st was Senior Night at Southern High School as the Rams honored the wrestlers in the class of 2015. Seniors Dalton Cooper, David Lewis and Josh King were honored in a ceremony prior to the night's action. Senior John Mayne was unable to attend due to a prior commitment. By the end of the evening, all three seniors in attendance were victorious in their bouts against Northern.
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| Coach Rush congratulates Josh King during senior night |
For the second night in a row, the young Southern Rams took on an unbeaten team in front of the home crowd in the Ram Arena in Oakland. On Saturday, the 10-0 Northern Huskies made the trip to Southern to try and keep their
season perfect. The Rams fell short on Friday against Williamsport but were hopeful the match against Northern would end differently. The Huskies were weakened by the loss of three wrestlers who were not with the team for disciplinary reasons.
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The match began at 220 with Southern and Northern trading forfeits in the top two classes. The first bout wrestled was at 106 with Dixon and Wilhelm meeting for the 4th time of the season. Once again, Wilhelm came out on top with a pin to give the Huskies a 12-6 lead. Steven Yutzy also scored a pin for Northern to extend the lead and when Southern's Jake Sweitzer dropped a close decision at 120, the Rams were in a hole at 21-6.
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| Senior Josh King with his 60th career win |
Devan Hamrick took the mat at 126 for his third meeting of the season with Lane Rounds. The two wrestlers had split their earlier bouts but on Saturday, Hamrick dominated with an 8-0 major decision. At 132, Josh King scored a first period pin to cut Northern's lead to 21-16. The Huskies' top wrestler bumped to 138 but was awarded a forfeit as the Rams did a little bumping of their own.
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| Devan Hamrick dominates |
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| Freshman Joey Embleton with a big comeback |
A pair of 138 pound wrestlers squared off at 145 with Northern's Luke Lowry squeaking out a 1-0 decision over Jimmy Schwab to put his team on the verge of clinching the team victory with a 30-16 lead. At 152, Southern's freshman Joey Embleton bumped up from 145 to wrestle one of Northern's senior co-captains. It was a wild match where Embleton found himself in a hole 8-4 with time winding down. In a flurry of action, Joey was able to score a reversal and 3 back points to pull off the exciting 9-8 come-from-behind victory, keeping his team alive.
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| Junior Corey Horner with a win by pin |
The Huskies extended their lead at 160 with a pin and Southern answered at 170 with Corey Horner scoring a first period fall of his own. Northern secured their team's victory with a pin at 182 and Dalton Cooper finish the night off by receiving a forfeit in the final bout at 195. The Northern Huskies defeated the Southern Rams for the third time of the season to remain unbeaten and have likely qualified for the regional duals.
Southern's dual meet record stands at 7-4 and still have three challenging matches remaining in the regular season. The Rams travel to Frostburg on Thursday for a clash with the Mt. Ridge Miners then return home next Saturday to close out the dual meet season with a tri-match against Keyser and Oakdale.
Northern 42 - Southern 31
106 - Devin Wilhelm (NG) pins Brison Dixon (SG) 1:52
113 - Steven Yutzy (NG) pins Zach Burgess (SG) 1:17
120 - Tylor Thomas (NG) dec Jake Sweitzer (SG) 7-2
126 - Devan Hamrick (SG) m dec Lane Rounds (NG) 8-0
132 - Josh King (SG) pins Richard Ravenscroft (NG) 1:25
138 - Justin Opel (NG) via forfeit
145 - Luke Lowry (NG) dec Jimmy Schwab (SG) 1-0
152 - Joey Embleton (SG) dec Connor Spiker (NG) 9-8
160 - Nate Durst (NG) pins Ethan Bittinger (SG) 3:50
170 - Corey Horner (SG) pins AJ Durst (NG) 1:34
182 - Kyle Beard (NG) pins Bernie Sislo (SG) 3:32
195 - Dalton Cooper (SG) via forfeit
220 - David Lewis (SG) via forfeit
285 - Ben Beeman (NG) via forfeit
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| Senior Night with Dalton Cooper and his family |
