WARDSVILLE - With five matches remaining in their dual Tuesday against the Blair Oaks Falcons, the Capital City Cavaliers needed a pin in each match to rally for a win.
The Cavaliers gave it their best shot, but Blair Oaks held on for a 44-31 win to finish its home quad-dual with a 3-0 record.
"We fought every match," Blair Oaks coach Mike DeMilia said. "There wasn't one guy that I thought laid down or went down easy.
"At the end of the night, everybody went out and competed, and that's the No. 1 thing."
Last year's dual between the Falcons and the Cavaliers came down to the final match. Capital City's Sterling Wheatley won by fall to rally his team to a 41-39 victory.
"We were looking at the score and thinking, 'Well, it might come down to Sterling again,'" Capital City coach Mitch Werdehausen said. "This was good competition and I look forward to it being competitive in the future."
Blair Oaks began the quad-dual with a 60-16 win against North Callaway and followed that with a 60-15 victory against Father Tolton.
Capital City also won its first two duals of the night, defeating Father Tolton 69-12 and North Callaway 54-22. Both the Falcons and the Cavaliers were 2-0 heading into their matchup.
Quinten Denney gave Blair Oaks an early lead in the dual against Capital City, winning by fall in 1:07 at 126 pounds.
Denney went 3-0 on the night, winning all three matches by fall.
"Quinten has been wrestling better," DeMilia said.
In the closest match of the dual, Austin Baumhoer of Blair Oaks won 1-0 against Capital City's Ty Wood. After a scoreless first period, Baumhoer recorded an escape with :31 remaining in the second period.
Baumhoer was then able to ride out all two minutes of the third period to secure the win, tying the dual at 9.
"I was really impressed with him, he did a nice job on top," DeMilia said. "He got ridden out for a while, but he ended up getting that escape."
Blair Oaks won each of the next five matches to build a 38-9 advantage. Nick Welch and Doug Blaha recorded second-period pins at 145 and 152, respectively, then Eli Batiste won by forfeit at 160, the only open weight class of the dual for the Cavaliers.
"Anytime you can go 13 or 14 matches in a dual, that's fun," DeMilia said. "We knew it was going to come down to the end."
Levi Haney won by technical fall at 170 and Camden Meeks pinned his opponent in the first period at 182 for the Falcons.
"We got pins when we needed them from some guys that we weren't necessarily sure we were going to get them from," DeMilia said. "That makes a difference."
Then Capital City got on a roll, starting with a win by fall for Bahshi Traylor in 4:38 at 195 pounds.
"We knew that was going to be a very athletic and aggressive match," Werdehausen said. "Bahshi kept his composure and he just got the points when he needed them."
Hurley Jacobs capped a 3-0 night with a first-period pin at 220 for the Cavaliers, making the dual score 38-21. Three more pins would give Capital City a win by one point.
However, Devonte Sanders secured the win for Blair Oaks when he only lost by major decision at 9-0 to Capital City's Ian Nelson at 285. Sanders trailed 7-0 after one period but only surrendered one takedown in the final four minutes.
"I saw a lot of toughness there tonight, and that's what we need out of him," DeMilia said of Sanders. "He's not going to wrestle 285 in districts for us, but in these duals, we had to bump him up, and he sacrificed for the team."
Whit Nichols won by fall at 106 for the Falcons, while Wheatley ended the dual with a win by fall at 113 for the Cavaliers.
"Capital City is going to be really good for a long time," DeMilia said. "It's going to get tougher and tougher to beat those guys."
AJ Kempker joined Jacobs with a 3-0 record for the Cavaliers, as did Nelson, Traylor and Eli Schuemann.
"The kids had three duals and three matches, really fast," Werdehausen said. "It really teaches them for tournament competition, that sometimes you have to pace yourself throughout the night."
Capital City (9-3) will wrestle Southern Boone and Fulton tonight in a tri-dual at Ashland.
Finishing the night with 3-0 records for the Falcons were Nichols, Denney, Welch, Blaha, Batiste and Meeks.
Blair Oaks (11-7) will look to defend its title Saturday in the Rebel Invitational at Park Hills Central.
In the only girls wrestling match of the night, Alayna Roling of Blair Oaks won by fall in 3:32 against Capital City's Arya Ahmed at 122 pounds.
"She showed some toughness," DeMilia said of Roling. "She was in some tough spots with that girl, and she worked her way out of it and got the pin."
III
Here are the dual and individual results from Tuesday night's quad-dual hosted by Blair Oaks:
DUAL RESULTS
Round 1: Blair Oaks 60, North Callaway 16; Capital City 69, Father Tolton 12.
Round 2: Blair Oaks 60, Father Tolton 15; Capital City 54, North Callaway 22.
Round 3: Blair Oaks 44, Capital City 31; North Callaway 48, Father Tolton 15.
CAPITAL CITY RESULTS
106 - Austin Feely won by forfeit, WBF in 1:53, LBF in 3:11.
113 - Sterling Wheatley won by forfeit, lost 16-2, WBF in 2:15.
120 - AJ Kempker won 11-9, open, AJ Kempker won 8-5.
126 - Eli Schuemann WBF in 1:26, AJ Kempker WBF in 3:02, Bishop Boyd LBF in 1:07.
132 - Open, Eli Schuemann WBF in 2:44, WBF in 5:14.
138 - Ty Wood won by forfeit, LBF in 3:48, lost 1-0.
145 - Keaton Schrage won by forfeit, Eli Jenkins WBF in 1:13, LBF in 3:07.
152 - Eli Jenkins won by forfeit, Ethyn Otto WBF in :44, LBF in 3:43.
160 - Ethyn Otto WBF in :12, open, open.
170 - Jabari Hubbard LBF in 1:56, LBF in 2:55, LBTF in 5:44.
182 - Matt Boyer won by forfeit, won by forfeit, LBF in 1:36.
195 - Bahshi Traylor won by forfeit, WBF in :19, WBF in 4:38.
220 - Hurley Jacobs WBF in 1:55, won by forfeit, WBF in 1:35.
285 - Ian Nelson won by forfeit, won by forfeit, won 9-0.
BLAIR OAKS RESULTS
106 - Whit Nichols WBF in 2:48, won by forfeit, WBF in 3:11.
113 - Easton DeMilia lost 15-4, won by forfeit, Brooks Nichols LBF in 2:15.
120 - Aidan Bolinger LBTF in 5:12, lost 13-7, lost 8-5.
126 - Quinten Denney WBF in 1:15, WBF in 2:34, WBF in 1:07.
132 - Caiden Sanford lost 11-3, LBF in 1:32, LBF in 5:14.
138 - Austin Baumhoer lost 4-0, won by forfeit, won 1-0.
145 - Nick Welch WBF in 3:30, won by forfeit, WBF in 3:07.
152 - Doug Blaha WBF in 3:25, won by forfeit, WBF in 3:43.
160 - Eli Batiste WBF in 4:51, WBF in :27, won by forfeit.
170 - Levi Haney won by forfeit, LBF in 2:42, WBTF in 5:44.
182 - Camden Meeks won by forfeit, won by forfeit, WBF in 1:36.
195 - Jayden Purdy WBF in 1:51, won by forfeit, LBF in 4:38.
220 - Joe Welch won by forfeit, Devonte Sanders WBF in :42, Joe Welch LBF in 1:35.
285 - Devonte Sanders won by forfeit, open, Devonte Sanders lost 9-0.