WARDSVILLE - In the third period of the deciding match of Tuesday's wrestling dual between the Capital City Cavaliers and the Blair Oaks Falcons, Capital City sophomore Sterling Wheatley was on his back.
Two minutes later, Wheatley was sitting on his teammates' shoulders.
Wheatley overcame a four-point deficit after a three-point nearfall, getting a reversal and then a pin against Blair Oaks' Quinten Denney with 27 second left in their match at 113 pounds. That lifted the Cavaliers to a 41-39 dual win against the Falcons at Blair Oaks Middle School.
"We needed the win, and he pulled it out," Capital City coach Mitchell Werdehausen said.
After the teams shook hands, Capital City wrestlers hoisted Wheatley on their shoulders to celebrate the win.
"I guess they were just really happy that our team took the W," Wheatley said. "It was such a close dual."
Trailing 39-35 entering the final match of the dual, Wheatley had to win by at least a major decision to give the Cavaliers the dual win. In a scrappy first period, there were a total of four reversals, and Wheatley led 7-6 after the first two minutes.
However, he was trailing 8-7 after two periods, and then Denney got a three-point nearfall midway through the third to extend his lead to 11-7.
But as soon as Denney had the nearfall, Wheatley quickly pulled out a reversal and had Denney on his back in a five-second span. Shortly after the referee called out a three-point nearfall for Wheatley, he finished it off with a pin.
"I didn't want to let the team down," Wheatley said. "I just wanted to go all out."
After the match, Blair Oaks coach Mike DeMilia emphasized the final match wasn't what lost the dual for the Falcons, that they had opportunities earlier the dual and didn't take advantage of them.
"Quinten wrestled his heart out," DeMilia said. "He made a couple mistakes, got himself in trouble, but he fought as hard as anybody we had on the team.
"I'm proud of Quinten, he had a lot of pressure on him there and he stepped up. He just got caught, and that's the way it goes."
Capital City opened with forfeit wins at 120 and 126, then Blair Oaks won the next five matches to take a 27-12 lead.
Winning by fall during that span for the Falcons were Caleb Meeks at 132, Camden Meeks at 145, Eli Batiste at 152 and Levi Haney at 160. Sam Frisbie won a 9-4 decision against Capital City's Keaton Schrage at 138.
"Sam Frisbie has had his struggles at times, but he's starting to come around and he's starting to figure things out," DeMilia said. "He's always been really good on his feet, but he really wrestled from the top position better tonight."
Capital City responded with four straight wins. Bahshi Traylor won by technical fall at 170, then the Cavaliers recorded three straight pins with Hurley Jacobs Jr. at 182, Ian Nelson at 195 and Larry Driver at 220.
"Bahshi's doing a great job at 170," Werdehausen said. "He's really stepping it up in the practice room, he's really working hard. Hurley, Ian, they all practice together. If they keep pushing each other in practice, they're going to be tough."
Both Nelson and Driver trailed 2-0 after one period, but they started on top in the second period and were able to roll their opponents over for a pin. That gave the Cavaliers a 35-27 lead.
"If they never give up and they keep going after it, good things will happen," Werdehausen said.
Austin Lange gave the momentum back to Blair Oaks with a pin at 285. Aidan Bollinger then won by forfeit to put the Falcons ahead 39-35 heading into the final match at 113.
"We needed the pin and he got it," DeMilia said of Lange. "For him to come out and get that win was huge."
Capital City improved to 12-2 in duals, while Blair Oaks is now 2-8.
"Hopefully that develops into a pretty good rivalry over time here," DeMilia said.
The third team in the tri-dual was South Callaway, but the Bulldogs only have one wrestler this season. Aaron Hargis won by fall in 3:26 against Capital City's Justin Sullens and lost 10-8 to North Callaway's Blake Whipple at 126.
North Callaway came in and filled the third team spot in the tri-dual. The Thunderbirds lost 66-16 to Blair Oaks and then fell 45-34 to Capital City.
"North Callaway contacted me over the break looking for a dual," DeMilia said. "It made sense to bring them in."
Denney, Camden Meeks, Batiste, Haney and Lange won by fall for Blair Oaks against North Callaway. For Capital City, Eli Schuemann and Nelson won by fall against the Thunderbirds, while Wheatley won an 8-6 decision.
Blair Oaks won both JV matches against Capital City. Austin Baumhoer won by fall in 2:50 against Ty Wood at 132, while Nick Welch won by fall in 1:15 against Xaine Henderson.
In the lone girls wrestling match of the night, Blair Oaks' Emily Sporleder won by fall in 1:13 against Capital City's Izzy Eitel at 110.
"She's wrestling really good competition," DeMilia said of Sporleder. "All of our girls are."
Capital City wrestles Thursday in a tri-dual against Fatima and St. James at Westphalia.
"We just want to keep competing and keep wrestling," Werdehausen said.
Blair Oaks is off until Saturday, when it competes in the Rebel Invitational at Park Hills Central.
"We want to see some new competition," DeMilia said of adding Saturday's tournament to the schedule. "It's a lot of bigger schools, so we'll see how we fair up with them."