By Chuck Reherman’, Sports Editor – When Yukon and Edmond North meet on the mat, you can usually expect some fireworks.
The Huskies set off theirs early and didn’t look back.
Edmond North rolled to a 26-0 lead winning the first five matches and posted a 44-25 win over the Millers in a dual on YHS’ home mat.
It was the second win in a row for the Huskies over the Millers. North won handily last year, but the Millers won in a come-from-berhind match the year before.
Once the Huskies built that lead, the Millers could not get back in the dual. YHS did cut the lead to 26-13, but North won the next two matches and when Brett Pinkston decisioned Caleb Moore at 138-pounds, it sealed the Huskies win with two matches remaining.
The annual match pits YHS head coach Joe Schneider against his brother Andy, but down plays the “rivalry” between the brothers.
“It doesn’t matter, a dual is a dual, just like it was against Mustang, I look at it ac competition and it gets us better,” Joe Schneider said. “We grow from it, we learn from it, hopefully, we have five and one-half weeks before regionals six weeks until state, so we better start learning quick.
“We didn’t have the best Christmas practices we wanted to have, so they know that,” he added. “Hopefully, they will bounce back. This is a test of their manhood, they need to grow up and be men, because if they are going to act like boys, they are going to get whipped like boys. They need grow up and be men, have to fight back. When they are backed into a corner and their backs are against the wall, they have to learn how to fight.
“Wrestling is a fight with a few rules and we didn’t have that tonight. We were backed away before we even started and that wasn’t good. Some of our matches were good, Jaxen (Gilmore) knows how to go out and take it to them and Cooper (Mahaffey) did a good job. When you are good enough to not have to introduce yourself, that is when you know you are good enough. Studd (Morris) is good enough for them to have to forfeit to and that is what we need to have across our team. We have had that in the past, good enough to where teams want to forfeit to you.”
North opened the dual with a technical fall win by Charles Floyd over Beau Batcheller, 20-4. Walker Brown decisioned Waylon Heger 8-6, then won the next three matches by fall to open the 26-0 lead.
Yukon’s first win of the night came at heavyweight with Ashton Aldridge taking a 3-1 win over Nick Steward. Mahaffey posted a 12-0 major win over Owen Taylor and the forfeit to Morris cut the lead to 26-13.
Grayson Seabourn’s pin of Steven Cook at 120 opened a 32-13 North lead and Trent Higginbotham decisioned Kylon Burgert 5-0 to make iot a 35-13 lead.
Wallace Tilley’s fall over Jackson Feist in 4:51 kept the Miller hopes alive, 35-19 three matches left. But, the Millers needed to win those three by fall and when Pinkston decisioned Moore, the dual was essentially over.
Gilmore did pin Anthony DesVigne in 3:20 for the Millers’ final win and cut the lead to 38-25.
“We have a lot of work to do and hopefully we can do it,” Schneider said. “I have full faith in these guys, I believe they have a lot of potential, but potential has not done anything yet. I have told them that and we will see what we they have got.
“North got points up on us big time early,” he said. “We thought we would win one of those matches there. It was a total letdown with Waylon (Heger). That goes back to practice and you are not going to win matches when it matters without that practice. They guy was not anywhere near Waylon’s capability.
“We knew they were tough at the 160 pound matches and the upper weights, but we have to battle back and learn to fight back. We can’t just go out and give up falls, bonus points are huge in these matches.”
