PPT Slide
“You can’t let the ref beat you,” Miller said. “You’ve got to keep wrestling. No matter what. I wasn’t going to lose that match. I’ve been practicing my butt off and I was going to win the match.
“Last year he beat me, and now it was my turn.”
“Every since he was a freshman, he’s just kept moving (on the bottom),” Mattingly said. “That was the difference.”
That, and 15-to-20 pounds, made for one of the best dual matches ever wrestled in Stark County.
There were other matches, of course. The best of the rest was at 145, where Thomas Straughn moved up to meet Adam Henley. Straughn, a sophomore, led the Lake senior 4-1 and 6-4 after the first two periods but still needed a takedown with five seconds remaining to seal a 10-6 decision.
Perry senior Greg Busby made sure the Panthers got off to a quick start. The senior 171-pounder threw David Kegg and pinned him in 51 seconds. Classmate Devyn Hoffner stuck freshman Tyler Rasho with a cradle in a pint that took a minute longer than that and Dustin Shilling earned an 8-3 decision at 189 to give Perry a 15-0 advantage.
Panther lightweights Danny Genetin (103), Scott Rooney (112) and Chris Hartley (119) all notched early pins as Perry locked up the match early in building a 33-3 lead. Genetin needed just 26 seconds for his fall, 12 seconds quicker than Rooney’s, while Hartley pinned 10 seconds into the second period.
Zach Mizer, at 135, also had a second-period pin and Cory Nelson scored a 20-4 tech fall for Perry over freshman Joe Betts. Brent Charton (130) and Zach Messer (135) copped 3-1 and 4-1 decisions, respectively.
Lake heavyweight Drew Ballinger showed no quit in a 5-3 overtime win against Adam Richards. Richards led 1-0 entering the third period, then bumped it to 3-1 with a takedown. With 19 seconds left, Ballinger took advantage of a stall call against Richards by escaping with 19 seconds left to tie the score, 3-3, and force overtime, where he got the takedown to win.
Cory Smith manhandled Josh Rachel, 15-3, at 125 for Lake’s other victory on a night when Miller’s overtime win over Schlatter overshadowed everything else.
