Rivalry renewed: Saints slip past Warriors, 36-35

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on January 29, 2015 1:46 PM

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The one-year absence on the mat is now a distant memory for vastly-improved Southern Wayne.

Especially after Tuesday evening.

The Saints renewed a rivalry with county foe Eastern Wayne that defined the competitive, spirited and intensity-filled individual matches during the old Mideastern 4-A Conference days. Wrestlers from either team refused to give an inch as four of the 10 contested matches lasted the full six minutes.

One bout ended in a thrilling overtime.

When the 1-hour, 20-minute affair concluded, the Saints had squeezed out a 36-35 victory in the Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference regular-season finale for both teams. Junior 170-pounder Chris Wilson earned the decisive points with an 11-8 triumph over John Amon.

"There's always a lot of emotion coming into someone else's home on their senior night," said SW head coach Kelvin Gurley, who is at least the sixth head coach in program history in the past decade.

"You want to see them have a good night, but you always want to play spoiler. It's the last regular-season match and everybody wants to go out on a high note. I thought our guys came out and did a great job, they competed very hard."

Southern Wayne (10-12 overall, 3-3 ECC) emerged victorious in just three individual matches, also drew four forfeits against short-handed Eastern Wayne.

The most-crucial match occurred at heavyweight. In their previous meeting, Warrior senior Bryan Wooten scored a 9-4 decision over Saints senior Bobby Stocks.

Despite giving up 40 pounds, Stocks returned the favor in a different manner. Wooten got the initial takedown barely 30 seconds into the opening period. Stocks rolled out of trouble, turned Wooten onto his back and recorded a 1-minute, 34-second pin.

"For us to get Bryan Wooten ... to win that match by pin swung the momentum in our direction because Wooten is a very accomplished wrestler," Gurley said. "Stocks getting that win, I think it really put our guys on a good track."

Eastern Wayne (10-19, 2-4) built a 14-point lead on Jykell McLamb's second-period fall at 120 pounds and Cainen Miller's gutsy major decision over Zach Buff at 126. Miller wrestled with a heavily-taped fractured right hand and aggravated the injury late in the second period.

"I asked him what he wanted to do and he said 'I'm going back' (on the mat) and I couldn't stop him from doing it," said EW head coach Michael Daughtry, who is a Southern Wayne alum.

"He's been battling it for about four or five weeks, he doesn't quit and we've told him that we don't want him wrestling, but he wants to wrestle."

The Saints gained command of the overall match that started with Rob Bartelucci's 12-7 decision over Rudy Rosales. The Warriors yielded three consecutive forfeits that pushed Southern Wayne ahead 33-26.

EW teammates Justice Johnson and Jordan Wooten, Bryan's "little" brother, combined to win two of the final three individual clashes. Johnson posted a reversal against O'Khanye Wallace as time expired in regulation, and claimed the match-deciding takedown with two seconds left in the first overtime.

It was Johnson's 17th win of the season.

"As you can see tonight, their friendship was out the door like it's supposed to be in a match," Daughtry said. "Justice prevailed, thank God. It was too close for comfort for both of us, but Justice has done real well and I'm going to miss him next year.

"He's been leader for the team this year and part of last year."

The Saints and Warriors return to action Saturday in the season-ending ECC individual championship tournament at New Bern. First-round matches begin at 10 a.m.