WARDSVILLE -- If Easton DeMilia was going to win his 100th career match on his home mat, it had to happen Tuesday night.
And it wasn’t going to come in his usual weight class, either.
DeMilia rallied from a three-point deficit in the second period and scored the deciding takedown with :10 remaining in overtime to win 8-6 against Camdenton’s Logan Tibben in his final match of a quad-dual at Blair Oaks High School.
“It was a tough match,” Blair Oaks coach Mike DeMilia said. “I didn’t know if he would win, but if there was a way he was going to get his 100th win, that was it. That’s the way he’s wrestled his whole career.”
Easton DeMilia, normally a wrestler at 120 pounds, moved up to 126 to face Tibben.
“None of the teams had a 120-pounder,” said Mike DeMilia, who is Easton’s father. “There were supposed to be two of them, and at the last minute they scratched. We made the decision to bump him up and his teammates were all in on bumping up to give him that shot.”
Easton DeMilia and Tibben were tied at 2 after one period. DeMilia trailed 6-4 at the end of the second, but he scored an escape point just before action was stopped as the wrestlers moved out of bounds, then he scored another escape with :02 left in the period.
“He’s as good as anybody we have on ‘just never stop wrestling,’” Mike DeMilia said. “There’s never a second in that match where he stops.”
Easton DeMilia scored a reversal with 1:39 left in the third period to tie the score at 6.
In the one-minute, sudden-death overtime period, he scored his first takedown of the match to secure the milestone win, which brought a big cheer from the Blair Oaks bench.
“I felt the longer it went, the more the advantage went to him,” Mike DeMilia said. “Their kid also got close to a takedown.”
Easton DeMilia, a junior, didn’t begin wrestling until he was in seventh grade. He is already a two-time state qualifier for the Falcons and finished fourth in Class 2 at 113 last season.
“We were always talking maybe he could qualify for state as a junior or a senior, stuff like that,” Mike DeMilia said. “The things he has accomplished, he has already exceeded expectations.”
Easton DeMilia’s win opened the dual against Camdenton, which Blair Oaks went on to win 63-15.
The Falcons started the evening with a 60-12 win against Rock Bridge, then lost 44-34 to Centralia in their second dual.
“Centralia, they’re going to be the state champion in Class 1, most likely,” DeMilia said. “Even in the matches we lost, we were competitive with them.”
Easton DeMilia, who won his other two matches by forfeit, was one of five Blair Oaks wrestlers to finish the quad-dual with a 3-0 record.
Brady Kerperin won all three of his matches by fall, either at 190 or 215.
“Brady didn’t have any easy matches, either,” Mike DeMilia said. “… He also had a huge win in the Tri-County Conference Tournament against (Versailles’ Tristin Gavette). He hasn’t had an easy schedule.”
Zach Rackers won twice by fall and once by forfeit at 165. He pinned Camdenton’s John Holt in 5:16.
“He gave all he could handle,” DeMilia said. “Zach took control, and our conditioning was a factor there in the third period.”
Dylan Peate went 3-0 at 175 and 190 with a pin and two forfeits, while Jacob Canaday filled in at 113 on the varsity lineup and went 3-0 with two pins and a win by major decision.
“Jacob is a really good wrestler and we expect that he’s going to have a great career for us,” DeMilia said.
Doug Blaha won both matches by fall at 175, improving to 6-0. He is one of three Falcons who still have an undefeated record, joining Rackers (28-0) and Kerperin (15-0).
“Doug is finally coming into his own,” DeMilia said. “I think his stamina and his technique are all coming together. He looked really good tonight.”
Finishing 2-1 were Nolan DeMilia at 106, Bradyn Huhn (132/138) and Hayden Steadman at 285, while Whit Nichols (126/132) and Nolan Laughlin (144/150) both went 1-2. Nate Casey (120) and Cole Peters (215) also won their only match.
Blair Oaks (14-7) wrestles Thursday at Mexico, then competes Saturday in the Owensville Tournament, just the team’s third individual tournament of the season.
“At the end of the year, our biggest competition is (individual) tournaments,” DeMilia said. “We have to have that experience.”
III
The Blair Oaks girls wrestling team had a 2-1 record in Tuesday’s quad-dual.
The Lady Falcons opened with a 66-6 win against Rock Bridge and a 54-9 win against Centralia. The Lady Falcons lost 51-21 to Camdenton, which featured 10 head-to-head matchups and only three forfeits. Both teams were open at 125.
“I really enjoyed wrestling Camdenton,” Blair Oaks coach Tim Karsten said. “We had good matches that pushed us.”
Brookelynn Meeks went 3-0 with three first-period pins at 125 and 130 to lead the Lady Falcons.
Skye Schubert (130/135) was 3-0 with two pins, Halie Eaton (155) was 3-0 with two pins and Rylee Robinett (170) was 3-0 with a win by decision and two forfeits.
“We were in most of the matches and the girls have learned to wrestle the whole length of the match,” Karsten said.
Sam Lage (140/145) also won by fall and by injury default to finish 2-1.
Blair Oaks (7-1) wrestles Thursday at Mexico.
III
Tuesday was Senior Night for the Blair Oaks wrestling teams.
Following the Rock Bridge dual, Quinten Denney, Peate, Rackers and Steadman were recognized for the Falcons, while Maddalen Prenger, Robinett and Alayna Roling were honored for the Lady Falcons.