North Point wrestling denies Northern
Eagles win final five weight classes to end match
Through the first nine weight classes of Tuesday night’s Southern Maryland Athletic Conference nondivision wrestling affair, Northern led 25-24 over host North Point.
However, the momentum quickly swung in favor of the Eagles as they went on 27-point spurt to end the match and deliver with a 51-25 victory over the Patriots.
North Point (4-7 overall) had nine wins on the night, six coming by way of pin.
After winning just one out of eight matches at last weekend Warrior Duals at La Plata High School, the win was big in helping the Eagles get back on track.
“I think we’re a good team. We had our bumps [last] weekend, a couple matches didn’t go our way,” North Point head coach Wilbur Leonard said. “I think we will give some people fits later in the season, so it’s good to
get a win and keep rolling from there.”
Following Fynn Yankanich’s pin at 120 pounds that gave Northern the one-point lead, North Point delivered with three pins in the last five bouts from Isaiah Edmond (132), Ethan Walker (138) and Mark Rodgers (152).
“Basically we didn’t have a good weekend at Warrior duals, so on Monday we got in the weight room and had a good practice session,” Edmond said. “We came out and wrestled with energy tonight and this was a big win to get our confidence back.”
Caleb Blancaflor won by forfeit at 126.
In the closest bout of the night, Logan Handwork eked out a 6-5 victory at 145 over Jacob McCollum of Northern. McCollum had a 5-3 lead, but Handwork delivered a takedown to tie the match at 5. McCollum then was called for locking hands, giving the Handwork the final point as time expired.
Northern won the first two bouts of the match as Lance Andriani earned a win by major decision over North Point’s Paullo Bonilla at 160 and Drew Fleming won at 170 after pinning Devon Muhammad with 27 seconds left in the second period.
North Point went on to win four of the next six bouts to take a 24-19 lead spurred by pins by Collin Fournier (182), Kyle Batchelor (220), and Xavier Prince (285). Eric Dwomoh won by forfeit at 113. Northern’s Seth Cranford gritted out a 7-3 win over Jaden Mack at 195 and Dylan Montgomery won by forfeit at 106.
The Patriots (4-5) have wrestled the tough part of their schedule thus far with losses to Leonardtown, Huntingtown, Lackey and North Point, but head coach John Battle knows it will be a work in progress for the team moving forward.
“We have a very young squad with some first and second year guys that are still learning,” said Battle, whose team went 4-1 for a runner-up finish at the Keaser Classic duals in Ellicott City last weekend. “We still have solid wrestlers that are experienced, we just have to get the young guys to stay off their backs and not get pinned. I see us really being better next year.”
North Point traveled to take on Old Mill of Anne Arundel County in a nonconference match on Thursday.
Northern is off until the Dec. 29 and 30 when it travels to wrestle in the South River High School duals tournament in Edgewater.