The extra points added up to a victory.
The Helias Crusaders scored bonus points in seven of their wins Wednesday night on their way to a 41-27 victory against the Jefferson City Jays in Central Missouri Activities Conference wrestling action at Rackers Fieldhouse.
“We got them and we didn’t give up as many as we could have,” Helias coach Weston Keleher said. “We wrestled tough against some of their better kids, kept the matches close where we needed to.”
The Jays were without a pair of starters and had not been able to practice due to the recent spat of cold weather for almost a week.
“Snow set us back last week, I gave the guys the weekend off from practice, Monday and Tuesday we couldn’t practice, we got a little something done this morning,” Jays coach Darrell Luebbert said.
“But no excuses, we got beat.”
After a draw, the dual started at 126 pounds and Jefferson City won the first four matches on its way to an early 21-0 lead.
“That’s exactly what we wanted,” Luebbert said.
On the other side …
“That was a horrible draw for us,” Keleher said. “We knew right off the bat we were going to be undermanned.”
Dominic Stafford of Jefferson City won the match at 126 by forfeit after Evan Dunn of Helias was injured at the Branson Tournament during the weekend.
At 132, Eli Teiberis of the Jays won by fall in 1:52 against Broden Prenger.
One of the highlight matches of the night came at 138, where Braden Werdehausen of Jefferson City squared off against Justin Wieberg of Helias.
“We have a lot of respect for Braden, we think he’s one of the better wrestlers in the state,” Keleher said. “Justin wrestled really well against him.”
After a scoreless first period, Werdehausen scored an escape and a takedown to take a 3-1 lead after two periods. Werdehausen then got a takedown in the third period to take a 5-1 victory.
“We didn’t get the pin and that kind of switched some momentum,” Luebbert said.
Deegan Mitchell won by fall in 3:23 against Ben Holee at 144 to give Jefferson City the 21-0 lead.
The Crusaders then went on a run of their own, winning six straight matches.
Aleksandr Careaga got Helias on the board at 150, winning by fall in 5:13 against Mikel Carver.
Carver led 2-0 after one period before Careaga tied the match going to the third. Careaga got a reversal to take a 4-2 lead and worked that into a win by fall.
“We knew that was going to be a match, Carver is a strong wrestler,” Keleher said. “He worked us in the first period, but (Careaga) kept wrestling through positions the rest of the way and got the cradle to win the match.”
At 157, Ben Curtis of Helias posted a 10-6 win against Anthony Seneker of the Jays. The match was tied at 4 after two periods before Curtis scored the final four points of the match to take the victory.
“It’s been a heck of a good stretch for Ben, he’s gone from having trouble staying off his back to beating tough guys,” Keleher said.
Helias then rattled off three straight wins by fall.
“That’s huge, we’ve been preaching bonus points all season,” Luebbert said. “Tonight, we turned into a half, we get thrown on our back, not wrestling the entire two minutes.
“We’re working on being more complete wrestlers.”
At 165, Eli Homan of the Crusaders jumped out to a 7-0 lead before winning by fall in 1:49 against Luke Mosley. At 175, Brady Fann trailed 2-0 after one period against Zeke Duren of the Jays before using a throw to win by fall in 2:42.
“Brady whiffed on the first try, but didn’t hesitate to try it again,” Keleher said. “He just wrestled his style and that’s what he needs to do.”
The Crusaders then flipped their lineup, moving Logan Montoya up to 215 and sending Brock LePage out at 190 to face Wyatt Jenkins.
“We did some research and Brock had beaten him already this year at Eldon,” Keleher said. “If we could just get a win again, that would be big.”
LePage led 4-2 after one period before winning by fall in the final seconds of the second.
“We had an idea the switch was going to happen,” Luebbert said. “We just got caught.”
Montoya then took on Alex Holloway at 215. Montoya led 1-0 after two periods before using a closing rush to post a 9-0 victory by major decision.
Luke Jenkins got Jefferson City back in the win column at 285 with a 5-1 victory against Bryce Allen. Jenkins led 2-0 after one period and 2-1 after two before scoring an escape and takedown in the third.
At 106, Daemen Duemmel of Helias won by fall in :33 against Aiden Renn of the Jays. Makoa Castillo of Jefferson City won 7-1 against Parker Lock at 113.
“That was a tough match against a very good kid from JC,” Keleher said.
At 120, Alex Wieberg of the Crusaders closed the dual with an 11-2 major decision against Tytus Oliver of the Jays.
“Our conditioning wasn’t the greatest for this dual, but we will get back on the grind and figure things out,” Luebbert said. “Back to practice (this) morning.”
Jefferson City is back in action Friday and Saturday at the Hickman Tournament. Helias will wrestle Friday and Saturday at the Platte County Invitational.
In Wednesday night’s JV dual, Jefferson City won 10 matches in a 51-24 victory against Helias.