By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SALEM, Ore.–  The Sprague Wrestling team had to work for every point they earned against Greater Valley Conference Opponent McKay in their 59-6 victory Thursday night.

“We won close matches and that’s never a bad thing,” said Olympian Head Coach Nolan Harris.  “I think McKay is a much improved team, they’ve been competing much tougher than they did this time last year.

“Coach (Troy) Thomas and his staff are doing a great job.”

For Royal Scots Head Coach Troy Thomas, he also expressed how his young squad wit and are looking forward on possibly facing Sprague again in Feburary in the District Tournaments.

“Some of those matches were incredibly close,” said Thomas.  “We’re giving up two points and that’s the whole match was those two points.  As the young team that we have, we haven’t learned how to close that gap and finish off those matches.

“But we will, by February, and we’re looking to get back to those guys.  We want to draw them again in the district tournament.”

The Varsity Dual Started with a duel of sorts in the 152-pound match between junior Manny Miranda and freshman Landon Davis from the Olys side.

Davis broke the two-all tie in the third round with two escapes and played strong defense for the 4-3 decision.

Harris was impressed by how the frosh did in the lead-off roll, but knows that he could always improve though.

“Landon Davis did a good job,” said Harris on the frosh.  “(His) First time as a freshman in the lineup to lead off, (he) probably could’ve been more aggressive.”

After the Scots dropped the 160 match between Bryce Clifton and Nathan Rediger in a 9-4 decision, Andy Rubio gave McKay their first win of the match.

Following the first round of handfighting, Rubio built a 6-2 lead, but held off Seth Rediger’s late push for a 6-3 victory.

“Win,” said Rubio on his thoughts in the closing moments. “I didn’t want to have what happen last year when we lost zero to 70.

“We didn’t want that, not this year.  (I) just wanted to keep momentum moving forward in a positive way, not negative.”

That mojo flowed into the 182 Adam Dryden match.

Dryden almost had to withdraw from the match in the second round down two, but he remained and battled to a one-point deficit before Spencer Hofziger converted on a takedown to seal the 8-5 victory for Sprague.

“I knew he was a quickester coming into it but I knew it would be a tough one,” said Hofziger on Dryden.  (I Knew) it was going to be down to close points so I stuck to what I knew and I did it.

That win gave the Olympians full grip of control as they converted a few hard-fought pins and took three forfeits from McKay before Daniel McClug had a major decision (20-4), against Shane Tennis.

Jamie Lara battled hard against Jordan Short in the 126 pound match as Short allowed Lara to pick up a point in the final thirty seconds of the match before winning in decision, 4-3.

But the Scots would respond in the 138 match as Kevin Gonzalez saw his 6-1 third period lead shrink to one before added three late points to pull a 9-5 decision over Wes Soderstrom.

Harris was impressed how Soderstrom, who moved up in weight from 126/132, battled hard in the match

“He gave himself a chance, He had an opportunity to win and comeback.” said Harris.  “He had a nice double-legged to give him a shot.  When he was attacking, he was putting himself in a position to score.”

As for the Scots and finishing, Thomas believes it’s all about quality, live reps for some of his kids who are in their tenth or 12^th-career match at the High School Level.

“There’s really no substitute for the actual experience of a match,” he said.  “A real referee match where the crowds watching you, so we need to get as many matches in as possible.”

Jeremy McDonald is a professional sports journalist in the Salem/Portland area and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalist in Oregon with B.S. degrees from Southern Oregon University in Journalism (2011) and Health/PE (2013).  Got a story idea? Email him at jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com or on Twitter at @J_McDonald81!

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