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Oak Grove wrestling had previously shut out Grain Valley twice the last two years heading into a dual match Tuesday at Grain Valley.
When the Panthers jumped out to a 26-0 lead after six matches in the latest tango, it looked as if the Eagles would suffer a similar fate.
That is until Grain Valley’s Tucker Pauley, a 171-pound junior who has become the leader of an Eagles team that includes just one senior regular in heavyweight Chris Parker, stepped onto the mat.
Pauley’s pin at 5:40 over the Panthers’ Cameron Cahill set off a spirited comeback, one that would fall short for the Eagles, who after closing to 29-24, lost 53-24 on senior night.
“Anytime you need some momentum and a spark match – Oak Grove has beat us pretty good the last couple of years, so we’re glad to kind of make some ground on them,” Grain Valley coach Jarrod Steffens said. “Tucker is a leader and has been working his tail off, and that’s the guy you want in that position to give you a spark. We’re glad he did that, and that kind of keeps the momentum high after that.”
Added Pauley: “The last two years we’ve been shut out by this team. We came in here knowing that we weren’t going to win, but we just needed to put up a fight. We came out, we wrestled as hard as we could, and we scored as many points as we could. It was a tough match.”
Grain Valley junior Jakob Drentlaw, a 171-pounder wrestling up at 215 pounds, was down 5-1 in the second period to Corey Stattleman after the Panthers’ Alec Brown won a 4-1 decision over Wes Freeman at 189 pounds.
Drentlaw reversed strategies, took advantage of a Stattleman mistake, and pinned the Oak Grove sophomore at the 3:20 mark
“I just didn’t give up,” Drentlaw said of the comeback win. “I knew everyone looks at me and says: ‘Oh, he’s wrestling 215.’ Everyone thinks I’m going to lose, but I keep going. It makes me see that I can do it – keep wrestling at 215.”
Pauley said of Drentlaw: “He’s a tough wrestler. He’s real strong. He doesn’t wear down. He’s a man. We call him an animal – The Drentlaw. He’s a machine is what we call him. He’s tough. His half (nelson) is mean; he never quits.”
Oak Grove wrestling had previously shut out Grain Valley twice the last two years heading into a dual match Tuesday at Grain Valley.
When the Panthers jumped out to a 26-0 lead after six matches in the latest tango, it looked as if the Eagles would suffer a similar fate.
That is until Grain Valley’s Tucker Pauley, a 171-pound junior who has become the leader of an Eagles team that includes just one senior regular in heavyweight Chris Parker, stepped onto the mat.
Pauley’s pin at 5:40 over the Panthers’ Cameron Cahill set off a spirited comeback, one that would fall short for the Eagles, who after closing to 29-24, lost 53-24 on senior night.
“Anytime you need some momentum and a spark match – Oak Grove has beat us pretty good the last couple of years, so we’re glad to kind of make some ground on them,” Grain Valley coach Jarrod Steffens said. “Tucker is a leader and has been working his tail off, and that’s the guy you want in that position to give you a spark. We’re glad he did that, and that kind of keeps the momentum high after that.”
Added Pauley: “The last two years we’ve been shut out by this team. We came in here knowing that we weren’t going to win, but we just needed to put up a fight. We came out, we wrestled as hard as we could, and we scored as many points as we could. It was a tough match.”
Grain Valley junior Jakob Drentlaw, a 171-pounder wrestling up at 215 pounds, was down 5-1 in the second period to Corey Stattleman after the Panthers’ Alec Brown won a 4-1 decision over Wes Freeman at 189 pounds.
Drentlaw reversed strategies, took advantage of a Stattleman mistake, and pinned the Oak Grove sophomore at the 3:20 mark
“I just didn’t give up,” Drentlaw said of the comeback win. “I knew everyone looks at me and says: ‘Oh, he’s wrestling 215.’ Everyone thinks I’m going to lose, but I keep going. It makes me see that I can do it – keep wrestling at 215.”
Pauley said of Drentlaw: “He’s a tough wrestler. He’s real strong. He doesn’t wear down. He’s a man. We call him an animal – The Drentlaw. He’s a machine is what we call him. He’s tough. His half (nelson) is mean; he never quits.”
Said Oak Grove coach Bobbe Lowe: “Alec wrestled well, but I was really disappointed with Corey. I felt like that was a match we could definitely win. I figured he just made a mistake – he kind of didn’t fight like he should have, but he’ll bounce back. He’ll be fine. I was kind of thinking we’d get that one.”
Grain Valley took two open matches at heavyweight and 103 pounds to close to within five points at 29-24, but Panthers sophomore Drake Hoffman, normally a 103-pounder wrestling at 112 pounds, pinned Hank McKenzie at the 1:24 mark to put Oak Grove back in control.
The Panthers got a forfeit victory at 119 pounds, and a pin by Anthony Barker at 125 pounds to close out the dual.
“I had to wrestle up today because I didn’t make weight or whatever,” Hoffman said. “I was kind of worried at the beginning, but I had to come through. (McKenzie) was pretty tough – like I said he had me worried there for a second.”
Lowe added: “We had to bump a couple of guys up, but guys are starting to get to where we need to be at the right time.”
GRAIN VALLEY 38, ODESSA 32: In a regularly scheduled match before the Eagles dual against Oak Grove, Grain Valley took down visiting Odessa by six points.
Grain Valley got pins from Cameron Nadeau (125), Zac Hoover (160) and Drentlaw (215) and decisions from Michael Bamman (152) and Wes Freeman (189) in the win.
