Wood bounces back to wrestle win over Handley

WINCHESTER — James Wood registered five pins Wednesday to take its dual wresting match with rival Handley 42-28 at Maddex-Omps Gymnasium.

Although the Colonels triumphed in the end, it was never a sure thing as the Judges took the first three matches, including a wild one between Handley’s Jensen Lofton and Wood’s Tyler Arnold that proved to be the most exciting bout of the night.

“He caught me in a Gator roll and that kind of scared me,” Lofton said. “He’s really strong, but when I got off my back I was a little upset with myself.”

Not only did Lofton recover but he nearly ended the match with a pin of the Colonel junior in the closing seconds of the second period.

With Arnold holding a narrow 12-8 lead heading into the final two minutes, the pair battled fiercely for the win. With less than five seconds left, Lofton scored on a takedown to take the match 14-13.

“After that scare early, I kept my head in the match,” Lofton said. “I just started to work my shots.”

Lofton’s win was the second of three opening matches that Handley won to jump ahead of Wood 12-0. John Delaney defeated Colonel Matt Papastavrou with a 3-1 decision at 145 and Jay House pinned Jack Youngblood in 52 seconds at 160.

That, however, turned out to be the high point for the Judges as Wood took the next four contested matches with falls. Paul Ebersole pinned the Judges’ Tyler Heglas in 5:52 at 170 to start the run. Bailey Eichelberger then decked Tommy Downey in 1:24 at 182.

After Handley’s Jimmy Vitola received a forfeit at 195, Wood’s Jared King pinned Markell Paige in 3:14 at 220.

Dawson Ray capped the run with a fall in just 10 seconds against Nathan Carter.

The spurt gave the Colonels a 24-18 lead.

“We started out real slow,” Wood coach Cory Crenshaw said. “I wasn’t happy how it sorted out. Our first three matches really hurt us. But the guys stepped up and got a couple of pins and won us the match.”

Handley’s Mac Gordon ended the surge with a 13-2 major decision against Vince Caruso at 106, but the Colonels clinched the win with three straight wins.

Jacob Pugh got the run started by pinning Hunter Thompson in 1:57 at 113.

“I was out there just doing what I was trained to do,” Pugh said. “I didn’t try anything fancy. I was just working him.”

Former state champion Aaron Black received a forfeit at 120. Corey Lemons closed out the spurt with a fall in 2:13 against Hector Agustin at 126.

I thought we did a lot of things right tonight,” Crenshaw said. “Our conditioning was a little down at the start of the season. If we can get our conditioning up I think we can be really good this year.”

Handley finally got back into the win column thanks to brothers Web and Cam Bentley. Web Bentley defeated Jac Bobadilla 6-5 at 132 and Cam Bentley took the meet’s final bout with an 11-4 decision against Aaron Curd at 138.

“We started out well,” Handley coach David Scott said. “The pins just killed us though. Just about every match we lost we got pinned in. If you do that, you’re not going to win. We’ve got to figure out a way to keep these kids off their backs. You can’t give up pins in dual meets if you want to win.”