The Jefferson City Jays and Helias Crusaders had the same plan heading into Wednesday night's wrestling dual.
Score as many bonus points as possible, while giving up as few bonus points as possible. And when they split the 14 matches, bonus points decided the dual as Jefferson City got them in all seven of its victories and defeated Helias 40-32 at Fleming Fieldhouse.
"We knew that getting pins were going to be big," Jefferson City coach Phil Cagle said. "We had talked about that in practice the past few days."
For the Crusaders, it was a night where they believe they let a dual win slip away.
"We gave it a shot," Helias coach Weston Keleher said. "I'm proud of the kids, we went out and wrestled tough.
"Are there places we could have gotten points or not given up points? Yes. We just gave them too many points by losing by fall in some matches. We knew coming in we had to get falls and not give them up."
The dual started at 113 pounds instead of the normal 106. It's the only dual of the year coaches draw a pill that shows the weight where action will begin.
"I pulled the pill for 113," Keleher said. "That was an advantage for us. We were fresh and it gave us a chance to come out and compete."
The strength of Helias' lineup is in the lower weights and that showed as the Crusaders jumped out to a 32-6 lead through the first seven matches.
Carter Prenger of Helias picked up Helias' first victory, winning by a first-period fall at 113.
"He loves this dual," Keleher said. "He's getting better after a tough part of the season."
Jack Lage of the Crusaders then won by technical fall at 120. He led 5-0 after one period and 14-0 after two. Jefferson City then allowed an escape to start the third period to end the match to give Helias five points instead of six with a pin.
"We wanted to potentially save a point," Cagle said.
The Crusaders then won two matches by decision - Jace Duemmel at 126 (6-2) and Jacob Schrimpf at 132 (3-2) - to extend their lead to 17-0.
"We just couldn't get pinned in those and that made the difference," Cagle said. "By then not getting pinned, it won us the dual."
Joe Kuster then got Jefferson City on the board with a second-period pin at 138.
"That was big because we thought we could win, but not sure we could pin him," Cagle said.
The Crusaders then won the next three matches. Wyatt Forck posted a first-period fall at 145 and Nikolai Careaga won 8-2 at 152.
At 160, Alex Tesreau of the Crusaders and Tanner Quick of the Jays went to overtime tied at 4. Early in the extra period, Quick suffered a knee injury and Tesreau won by injury default to increase Helias' advantage to 32-6.
"That's not the way we wanted to win," Keleher said.
The Crusader coaches came out on the mat to check on Quick soon after the referee blew the whistle to stop the match.
"They wanted to come out and help Tanner as much as they could, they're a bunch of great guys," Cagle said. "I have all the respect in the world for Helias."
Jefferson City then closed the dual by winning the final six matches, getting the maximum six points in the first five.
Will Berendzen at 170, Michael Friederich at 182 and Jakeil Hayes at 195 all won by first-period falls for Jefferson City before Brant Aulbur's win by forfeit at 220 pulled the Jays to within two points at 32-30.
Isaac Enloe then gave Jefferson City its first lead of the night, winning by a second-period fall at 285, which made it 36-32.
Down by four points heading into the final match at 106, Helias needed a major decision to tie the team score. A win by technical fall or fall would win it.
But Da'Juan Wallace of the Jays took the drama out of final match early, jumping out to a 7-1 lead after one period on his way to a 13-4 major decision to give Jefferson City the eight-point win.
"We have confidence in Da'Juan," Cagle said. "He's done a good job this year, he's really matured as a wrestler."
"Da'Juan is not really a pinner, but he's a very good wrestler, he kept the pressure on."
With the win, Jefferson City is the lone undefeated team remaining in Central Missouri Activities Conference action at 4-0.
"That's a very good team, they are well-coached," Keleher said. "It was fun."
Helias, now 3-1 in CMAC duals, will wrestle Saturday at the Platte County Invitational.
Jefferson City will head Saturday to Columbia for the Hickman Tournament.
In Wednesday's JV dual, Jefferson City defeated Helias 46-21.