Montezuma-Cortez lost its home wrestling dual to Durango, as expected.
On Wednesday night, a fully suited Demons roster was on their side of the mat.
On the home side, there were only five.
Durango collected a bunch of forfeit wins and won three of the four matches that took place. The shorthanded Panthers of Montezuma-Cortez High School were on the short end of a 57-10 loss.
Durango has got a pretty solid team. We knew we was going to get a test tonight, Panthers coach Eric Smith said. Durango came to wrestle tonight. Evidently, we didnt. In all aspects tonight, we struggled.
Coach Smith has wrestlers injured or out due to academic ineligibility, and some quit earlier in the season.
The kids we got left are hard workers, he said.
Junior captain Ryan Daves drew cheers from the crowd winning his match. Daves slimmed down from 132 pounds to 126 and is 3-1 in the new year.
I feel good at 126s, Daves said. My weights good. I feel a lot stronger at 126.
Daves earned two quick takedown points in the first round. But Durangos Justin Ngo held strong the rest of the two minutes. Two near fall points in the second gave Daves a 4-0 lead. In the third round, Daves took control. After Ngo got on the board with an escape point, Daves locked Ngo in a 2-point reversal to regain his control. Ngo managed one more escape, but Daves secured the match with two more takedowns. The end result was a 10-2 major decision for Daves.
Hes a good kid, Daves said about Ngo. It was real tight. I couldnt do much on him. He just kind of stalled out, but it was a good match.
Trenton Gustafson won the other match for M-CHS at 182 pounds by forfeit.
Seager Oliver lost a tough match to a revenge minded Gabe Crawford at 152 pounds. Oliver beat Crawford in a hard fought match earlier in the season.
Crawford led throughout the match, but Oliver stayed with him just waiting for his opportunity. There were plenty of momentum shifting moves and holds that had the crowd of both schools on the edge of their seat.
However, in the third period, Crawford made one last move that doomed Oliver. Crawford found Oliver on his back and scored a pin at the 5:28 mark.
Other M-CHS wrestlers that saw action were Levi Gross and Justice Ramos at 113 and 132 pounds. Gross lost by an 11-3 decision to Dillon Anthony, and Ramos lost by technical fall to Nick Tarpley.
The Panthers will wrestle today at the Palisade High School tournament at 9 a.m.
They just need to finish, Smith said about going into Palisade. Theyre just getting into some positions where they have chances to score and theyre just not finishing. That 2-point takedown is a 4-point swing if we get that. We need to be a little bit more aggressive and get in there and finish, instead of wrestling from behind.
Reach Bobby Abplanalp at bobbya@cortezjournal.com.
