If nothing else, the Gilman Greyhounds have a flair for the dramatic.
After beating No. 2-ranked Archbishop Spalding earlier in the week and No. 4 Mount St. Joseph a week ago, the top-ranked Greyhounds added No. 5 Loyola Blakefield to the list Friday night.
Isaiah Trusty’s pin over Brendan Kelly at 215 pounds finished a 14-point team score comeback in which host Gilman won five of the final six matches to defeat Loyola, 37-34, in a key MIAA dual meet.
It often wasn’t pretty for the Greyhounds (13-1), but they continued to pick up key bonus points throughout the match that carried them through at the end.
“I’ve become accustomed to winning under pressure,” said Trusty, who also won the dual against Mount St. Joseph with a pin in the final match. “Coming into the match I was thinking about what to do. My go-to is the throw, and I tried it and it worked out.”
The Greyhounds trailed the Dons (15-3) with three matches left, 28-25, but Gilman coach Bryn Holmes sent out Emmet Sherlock, The Sun’s Wrestler of the Year last season, at 190 pounds, and Loyola chose to forfeit. That gave Gilman a slim 31-28 lead heading into the final two matches. After Trusty’s pin pushed the lead to 37-28, Loyola’s shot to win disappeared. The Dons did finish the match on a high note, however, when Loyola heavyweight Luke Randazzo defeated Noah Lawrence with a pin to account for the final score.
“This match was another great opponent,” Holmes said. “This was a huge week for us, wrestling Spalding who’s great and Loyola who’s just as good. Our guys battled, and the guys who were the next men up showed up for us.”
The most pivotal match of the night was probably at 120 pounds. Loyola sent out Jayden Jackson, who is rated No. 2 in the state in that weight class by legacy wrestling. Gilman chose to bump up their 113-pounder Liam McGettigan, who is rated No. 1 in the state in that classification.
Jackson took the lead, 1-0, with an escape in the second period. Later in the period, though, Jackson was assessed a penalty point which tied the match. McGettigan grabbed a 2-1 with an escape with 1:12 left in the match and Jackson never scored again.
“I respect that kid a lot,” McGettigan said. “My attitude was he’s a great wrestler and I had nothing to lose. I just wanted to go out there and help out the team.”
“That was a huge win for us,” Holmes said of McGettigan’s victory. “Props go out to him. Also, to Jon Jurkovic [who defeated Riley Miller at 175 pounds]. Those are the things that make this team special.”
For Loyola, it was a case of close and almost.
“Obviously disappointed,” Loyola coach Steven Truitt said, “when you have a chance to take out Gilman, which is a great team with a great coach, and you come up short. It comes down to bonus points, and we tell our guys that all the time. We’ll take what we learned from this and move on.”
Gilman 37, Loyola 34
106: Vercelius (LOY) won by forfeit; 113: Wirts (GIL) tech fall; 120: McGettigan (GIL) d Jackson, 2-1; 126: Faver (LOY) p Martin, :43; 132: Glory (GIL) p Jackson, 1:32; 138: Weeks (LOY) tech fall over Yoon, 17-2; 144: Hale (LOY) tech fall over Enright, 16-1; 150: McKneely (LOY) p DeCosta, 4:16; 157: Peck (GIL) maj dec. Shepherd, 21-8; 165: Konshak (GIL) d Lizzati, 12-5; 175: Jurkovic (GIL) maj dec. Miller, 12-3; 190: Sherlock (GIL) won by forfeit; 215: Trusty (GIL) p Kelly, 1:32; Hvy: Randazzo (LOY) p Lawrence, 3:43.