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St. Marys' Bronson Hertenstein lifts up Celina's Zach Colobong during the 157-pound bout at Thursday's WBL duel match at Grand Lake Health System Court. Hertenstein scored a pinfall victory to help the Roughriders beat Celina 57-24.
ST. MARYS - Once the momentum got rolling for St. Marys, there was no slowing them down.
The Roughriders won nine of their 10 bouts via pinfall and picked up their first Western Buckeye League wrestling victory in beating Celina 57-24 at Grand Lake Health System Court on Thursday night.
After losing their season and league opener last Thursday at Defiance, Roughriders coach Larry Gruber felt his team wanted to make a point.
"After getting beat last week, we kind of woke up a little bit," said Gruber. "They decided they really wanted this one."
"We obviously did not wrestle well," said Celina coach James Miracle. "There was nine matches we had as toss-ups and we lost every one. We had several matches we were winning and (then) got pinned."
St. Marys got the night started with Matthew Murray pinning Brady Steinbrunner in 3:04 at 285 pounds. Wrapping around to the lightweights, Jeremiah Cisco went to the third period against Kenzie Miracle before getting the pin at the 5:11 mark of the match at 106 pounds.
Celina's Kaleb Krogman sets up St. Marys' Colton Luedeke for a pinfall in their 113-pound bout at St. Marys.
Celina got its first victory of the night as Kaleb Krogman needed just 35 seconds to pin Colton Luedeke at 113 points, but St. Marys came back as Nick Griffis pinned BJ Tare with 1:11 remaining in the 120-pound bout.
After the Bulldogs gained six points with St. Marys voiding at 126 pounds, St. Marys got back on a roll at 132 as two-time All-Ohioan Tate Hisey pinned Mason Homan in 1:42. The lone non-pinfall competitive match of the night came at 138 as Noah Bruce and Payten Staugler dueled for the full six minutes with Bruce holding on for the 11-8 decision to move St. Marys' lead to 27-12. Dylan Finke quickly resumed the Roughrider pin parade at 144 as he got the pin on Luke Maxwell with 13 seconds remaining in the bout.
Celina's Payten Staugler tries to keep St. Marys' Noah Bruce during their 138-pound bout at St. Marys.
"Once momentum got going, we were okay," said Gruber. "Coming out at the beginning, you don't know how things are going to go. It could have gone the other way easily."
Celina snapped St. Marys' streak at 150 as Zach Greber got the pin on Zach Myers with five seconds remaining in the opening period to get Celina to within 15 at 33-18, but Bronson Hertenstein wasted no time keeping Celina from getting hot, poinning Zach Colobong at the 2:36 mark to make it 39-18 at 157. Caleb Turner then clinched victory by pinning Carver Harris at 3:45 to make the score 45-18, meaning Celina could not come back even with pins in the final three bouts.
Luke Lazarich picked up Celina's final victory by pinning Noah Allen in 45 seconds at 175. Cole Donovan followed by pinning Josh Sweeney at the 2:17 mark at 190 and Tanner Mele pinned Carter Ly with 40 seconds remaining in the match at 215.
"We have to get better," said Miracle. "We wanted to cancel practice tomorrow and have a nice dinner, but now we're having a hard practice as we head into the holiday season. Probably one of the worst dual matches we've had the last 7-8 years."
St. Marys is off until Dec. 29 when the Roughriders travel to the Marion Harding Invitational. Celina will look to rebound next Wednesday at the Parkway Holiday Tournament.
