A thrilling back-and forth dual came down to the heavyweight bout with Dulaney heavyweight Brendan Taylor needing a win over Catonsville’s Henry Jones.
The Lions trailed by three, which didn’t set up as an easy task with Taylor, who weights 195 pounds, wrestling up against Jones, who’s much closer to the 275 maximum — plus Taylor had lost to Jones in overtime in a match earlier this season.
After a scoreless first period, Taylor picked up a second-period escape, then followed a late takedown with a pin with eight seconds left, winning the bout and lifting the Lions to a 39-36 victory.
“So, when he shot on me, I sprawled back. … I just pulled him close to me and just punched it right through,” Taylor said.
He prepared for the match jogging back-and-forth on the sidelines with nervous energy.
“I do it every match just to get myself locked in and be ready to go out there for my team,” said Taylor, who learned from his previous loss to Jones.
“I just believed in myself,” Taylor added. “In the beginning of the season, I was doubting myself and didn’t think I was going to have the same success as last year. So, I came in here ready.”
“Brendan is one of our two captains,” Dulaney coach Scott Asher said. “He was a heavyweight last year and he weighed even less than he is this year.”
Taylor’s heroics wouldn’t haven’t been possible without a 2-1 double-overtime victory by Dulaney’s Latdior Ceesay, who defeated Donovin Boger at 215.
“That was huge,” Asher said. “He got on my guy’s legs at the end. I was like ‘Oh My God’, last couple seconds he almost scored, so we were happy to come aways with that overtime win. It was nice to get some revenge.”
“We knew it was going to go down to the wire,” Catonsville coach George Dunn said. “He just couldn’t finish. We’ll clean that up. He gets that takedown and that’s the difference.”
The match started with a surprise forfeit win for Dulaney’s Alex Raymond at 106 pounds.
“Our 106-pounder, King Whitehurst, was out sick. So that’s a 12-point swing right there,” said Dunn, noting Whitehurst is 21-2 this season.
Angelo Kibby, a Mount Saint Joseph transfer and one of six senior wrestlers honored before the match on senior night, won his first match of the season in just his second match of the year after recovering from injury. He pinned Bennett Hess in 25 seconds to tie the match.
Dulaney regained the lead on Braiden Evans’ third-period pin at 120. Evans’ 8-3 lead evaporated to the point where he trailed by one, but he rallied to take a 20-12 lead before the pin.
Pins by Catonsville’s Owen Shelley (126) and Drew Eveleth (132) gave the Comets a lead, but Kevin Blair’s pin tied it at 18.
Dulaney’s Antonio Suarez Munoz (144) secured a 9-2 decision, followed by a pin by Ethan Radcliffe (150) and Roger Sacks’ 7-2 triumph gave the Lions their biggest lead of the night, 30-18.
Needing a spark, the Comets got it with back-to-back pins from Eric Weedon (165) and Nate Smith (175). Weedon trailed 7-0 early, and Smith broke a scoreless tie with a reversal and pin with 1:16 left in the third period, tying the match at 30.
“He kinda tried to throw legs in and it didn’t work. He caught himself in a bad spot,” Smith said. “I was on top of him and I held him there. It’s senior night, we needed those points. We needed the pin.”
Smith was a surprise addition to the Comets as a freshman.
“He got cut from the basketball team as a freshman and came out to wrestle,” Dunn said. “He’s been working hard. He put his heart and soul into it and he’s come a long way. I’m really glad to have him on the team.”
“I still play basketball on the side and I like playing basketball for fun, so I think if I played basketball as a sport it would have taken the fun out of it and I learned to love wrestling,” Smith said.
Josh Agen-Davis (190) secured a first-period pin giving the Comets (7-4) a 36-30 lead and setting up the fantastic finish for the Lions.
“We had a couple starters out of our lineup, so we were a little concerned, but once we got past their lightweights where they are stronger, we knew we were going to be challenged there but after that we were pretty confident,” Asher said. “Some of our new guys stepped in and got the wins where they needed it.”
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