Coming off an exceptional performance at Stewarts Creek on Tuesday night, Blackman visited crosstown Region 5 foe Siegel on Thursday night for a quad match between Siegel, Lawrence County and Shelbyville.
Blackman came into the evening undefeated in district and region action and looking to take another step towards clinching the district championship. Siegel was last year’s Region 5 Champion and knocking off the Stars proved to be more challenging than the Blaze had hoped.
The dual started at 170 pounds as Blackman’s Vincent Cross faced John Williams. Last week Vincent lost to Williams by only one point in the consolation finals at GP West and Vincent was ready to take another shot at him. Williams got out to an early lead with a first period takedown but Vincent got a quick escape and followed that with a takedown of his own to end the period up 3-2. Williams chose down in the second period and got a reversal to go up 3-4. Despite several opportunities, Vincent couldn’t get an escape and Williams rode him out the whole third period to win 3-4.
After losing the first match, Blackman got in gear and reeled off a couple of first period pins. Hunter Winters pinned Grey at 0:50 and Andre Bravo pinned Braden at 0:47. (Match Score – 12-3 Blaze)
At 220, Blackman’s Sam Luker had a great first period against Bargatze getting the first takedown and only giving up an escape ending the period up 2-1. Sam chose down in the second and Bargatze rode the top position well and ended up turning Sam and getting the pin. Jamil Hughes and Siegel heavyweight Patterson had a quick bout and Jamil was pinned early in the first. This gave Siegel the lead. (12-15 Siegel)
Siegel’s lightweights are experienced and capable of doing some damage and at 106, 113, and 120, they all earned pins over the Blaze wrestlers. 5 straight pins against us pushed Siegel’s lead to 12-33.
At 126, Blackman’s Clayton Apland faced Daniel Bradford in another rematch from GP West. Bradford got an early takedown and didn’t look back. He is very tough on top and rode Apland for most of the 2nd and 3rd periods. However, this time, Apland kept it to a decision and minimized the damage. (12-36 Siegel)
132 pounder Jalen Brown earned a tough fought 7-3 decision over Faris Abuzahra which gave the Blaze their first points in the last 6 matches. Elijah Cox (138) got a first period pin over Saldana and Logan Fowler (145) put up 16 points on Tyler LaBelle earning him a tech fall. (26-36 Siegel)
With two matches to go, Blackman needed to pin in BOTH of the final matches in order to win. Siegel’s Christian Salter (152) ended Blackman’s chances by pinning Cole Tillman with only 7 second left in the first period. At this point, the match was out of reach and Matthew Sells closed out the dual with a quick pin on Siegel’s 160 pounder.
With the win, Siegel forced what should end up being a three-way tie between the top 3 district 10 teams. (Siegel, Stewarts Creek & Blackman). Blackman wrestles Cookeville and LaVergne next Tuesday night on Senior Night and will need wins over both in order to guarantee a spot at the region 5 Duals. If Blackman wins both, they are expected to compete for the Region 5 dual championship which will be held on Thursday Jan 28th at Coffee County.
Snow has cancelled the Christian Brothers tournament and the JV tourney at Stewarts Creek so everyone gets the rare opportunity to play outside and enjoy the long weekend. Blackman is back in action again on the 26th at home for Senior Night.
As always, pics from the action at Siegel can be found on the PHOTOS page.