When each team wins seven of the 14 matches in the night, it is all about the bonus points.
And that was the case for the No. 2 McDonogh Eagles and No. 3 John Carroll Patriots, as the Eagles out-scored the Pats with 10 more bonus points in their 35-25 victory, Wednesday.
“We got a lot of bonus points early on that helped us out,” McDonogh coach Pete Welch said. “We knew it would be a tight match coming into it because they have a lot of good wrestles, and a couple things could have gone either way, but our kids got it done and I’m proud of them.”
McDonogh busted out to a 20-point lead between its 152-pounder and heavyweight with five wins in the first six matches, but it wasn’t just that the Eagle heavyweights nearly went perfect to start the match; they did so with 11 bonus points.
Working back-to-back major decisions, Tyler Patrick and Max Sataloff thumped their opponents at 152 and 160, respectively, and Travis Wood (171), Kevin Marvel (215) and Roman Braglio (285) all recoded falls to overwhelm Mathew Miller’s pin at 189 for John Carroll to a 26-6 McDonogh lead.
“Tying up seven [matches] and seven [matches], we needed all the pins and majors to get bigger points,” Sataloff said. “Without those, it would have been a one point match, so that was a pretty big effect on the overall dual.”
The effect was felt by the Patriots as the match went on, seeing five decisions and a major decision from their lightweights merely pick at the Eagle lead.
While Patriots Artie Millner (103), Devin Davis (112), Scott Strappelli (119), Lance Waters (125), Dan Froehlich (135) and Joe Vitucci (140) all battled to good individual wins to come within a major decision of the Eagles, McDonogh’s Toby Hague put the match away with his 145-pound fall for the 35-25 final.
Davis and Froehlich each won their matches with third-period scores, as Davis broke a 2-2 tie with an escape and clinched his win with a crowd pleasing takedown with 25 seconds left in his match, and Froehlich scoring his match’s first points with an escape in the third period and earning a point on an unsportsmanlike conduct call for his 2-0 win.
“Devin Davis had a great night,” Patriot coach Keith Watson said. “A great night. Devon came up huge with his win.”
Waters was another third-period winner, using a takedown with 40 seconds left to take a 6-5 lead in his one-point win.
As exciting as the matches were, the most anticipated bout of the night had to be between McDonogh’s Jack Clark and John Carroll’s George Weber.
In the battle of the two nationally ranked studs, the two top wrestlers went scoreless through the first period, and trading escapes with the second and third periods, remained tied at 1-1 with overtime in sight.
But a distant shot from Weber would soon turn into a Clark takedown with just 15 seconds left in the match, resulting in the McDonogh arm raised after the final buzzer.
“I was just thinking that I had to wrestle the way I wrestle,” Clark said. “He was tough and I knew it was going to be close, but I have a lot of stamina and I knew I could pull it out.”
“That was a crapshoot,” Watson said. “Jack Clark is a bad guy, and George Webber is a bad guy. You add 20 seconds to the end of the match, who knows, but it was a good one to watch.”
The McDonogh win puts the Eagles in better standing to battle for an MIAA regular season title, but John Carroll is no stranger to coming back from a loss and taking post-season honors.
“As we all know, tournaments and dual meets are entirely different. Last year they beat us by two points in a dual meet, and we beat them in the tournament,” Watson said. “We just have to keep working and we have to win those close matches.”
McDonogh will next head up to Pennsylvania to take on Cumberland valley, Saturday, while the Patriots heads into the Iron Horse Duals this Friday and Saturday.
“We just have to keep everybody healthy and keep working everybody in practice everyday,” Welch said. “We are pleased that we came out on top, but we came away with a lot of things we need to work on. We will get back to work tomorrow and hopefully keep improving throughout the year.”
McDonogh 35, John Carroll 25
152- Tyler Patrick (McD) maj dec 9-0 Sammy Owens (JC) [0-4]
160- Max Sataloff (McD) maj dec 20-7 Ryan Etkins (JC) [0-8]
171- Travis Wood (McD) fall 3:13 Daniel Cobell (JC) [0-14]
189- Mathew Miller (JC) fall 3:18 Dan Maltsev (McD) [6-14]
215- Kevin Marvel (McD) fall 3:40 Kyle Miele (JC) [6-20]
285- Roman Braglio (McD) fall 5:16 Rob Clingerman (JC) [6-26]
103- Artie Millner (JC) maj dec 14-5 Angelo Munafo (McD) [10-26]
112- Devin Davis (JC) dec 5-2 Logan Meister (McD) [13-26]
119- Scott Strappelli (JC) dec 9-2 Xavi Ramos (McD) [16-26]
125- Lance Waters (JC) dec 6-5 Bobby Twigg (McD) [19-26]
130- Jack Clark (McD) dec 3-1 George Weber (JC) [19-29]
135- Dan Froehlich (JC) dec 2-0 Mitch Bode (McD) [22-29]
140- Joe Vitucci (JC) dec 6-1 Theo Duncan (McD) [25-29]
145- Toby Hague (McD) fall :59 Zack Donato (JC) [25-35]
