Rock Hill dominates on mat

By Barry Byers - The Herald

Wrestlerama night was Thursday at Northwestern High School and three area teams went after it on the mat.

When the curtain fell for the evening, Rock Hill was 2-0, Northwestern 1-1 and Clover 0-2.

The two Rock Hill matches went as expected. The Bearcats had their way in a 76-3 win over Clover, and capped the night with a 61-9 walkover against rival Northwestern.

That means two things. Yes, Rock Hill is as good as advertised, which is why it is ranked No. 1 in Class AAAA. And the other match, Northwestern's 48-30 win over Clover, was easily the best of the night.

The score was tied four times before Northwestern began pulling away with the match knotted at 30. And as quick as you can snap your fingers, it was over.

The Trojans ran off consecutive pins in the final four weight classes, all coming quickly in the first round. Chris Nguyen stuck Andrew Brown at 112, Kevin Hinton pinned Matt Bridges at 119, Shawn Lyons beat Phillip Burroughs, and Michael Mitchell ended the match by putting John Burnette on his back.

The night's second match was all Bearcats, except at 160 pounds. That's when Clover's Josh Finnigan picked up his team's only points with a 7-1 decision over Alan Hanson.

The match served as a preview of what was to come in the final round between Northwestern and Rock Hill.

"This was a good night for us because we were able to use some of our wrestlers who don't start," Rock Hill coach Cain Beard said. "And we let our wrestlers who have nagging injuries get rest."

The match started at 145 pounds, and right off the bat, the Trojans thrilled the home crowd with arguably the best match of the night.

Northwestern's Michael Espinoza and Rock Hill's Chase Ballard tore into each other, but after three rounds, all to show for their efforts were a pair of escape points and a 1-1 tie.

The overtime was done before getting started. When the wrestlers got into position, it was ruled Ballard was in violation, and Espinoza was awarded a 2-1 win.

The Bearcats unleashed five straight wins, a major decision by Dominique Jenkins and pins from Corey Tretsky, DeLeon Boulware, Josh Tuck and a forfeit to Mitchell Jeter for a 28-3 lead.

Northwestern answered with a pin, with heavyweight Richard Crank beating Reuben Velasquez to stop the bleeding. It proved to be only a temporary cure.

The Bearcats won six of the last seven bouts, five coming on pins.

"Our guys showed they have some fight," Northwestern coach Mike Biddix said. "We have just one senior, three juniors and a bunch of young ones.

"I'm proud of the way we battled, but Rock Hill is a lot better than us. We saw what we need to do and that's to keep fighting."