Central Valley Scrambles Past Mead, 34-23

High school wrestling

Central Valley scrambled its lineup and Courtney Brown scrambled in his first wrestling match of the year.

But Mead was unable to scramble the Greater Spokane League standings, falling 34-23 to the favored Bears.

“I knew we were one match away,” said first-year Panther coach Scott Bliss. “We needed one of our wrestlers to come through and it didn’t happen.”

It certainly didn’t happen in Brown’s match clincher, an 18-9 victory over John Potter at 168 pounds.

“I like wrestling that guy. He always does weird stuff to me,” said Brown. “I scrambled a lot throughout the match and got myself in trouble.”

Brown, like Houdini, has always managed to wriggle out of predicaments and turn them into points. He did so in the third period after losing most of a comfortable 9-1 lead to come away with the major decision.

“I just wanted to get it done, no matter what,” he said. “It was my first match and I didn’t think I’d be that crisp anyway.”

CV coach Dale Ethridge bumped virtually his entire lineup up a weight, beginning with Loren Kintner’s opening-match major victory at 190 pounds. And the scramble began.

The teams traded victories two matches at a time until John Reese, wrestling at 129, put the Bears ahead for good in the night’s eighth match.

Brandon Bouge followed Kintner with another major decision but Mead’s Nick Slind and Kelly Compogno put the Panthers ahead.

CV’s Kyle Bush won a first-round pin at 108 pounds that Bliss said he figured to be a tossup.

Pivotal for Mead was Mark Denholm’s 115-pound 9-6 win over Shawn Conlon after trailing 6-3 with less than a minute to go.

“I knew I had to turn him because it was going to be a close match,” said Denholm. “The upset was running through my mind but I couldn’t let him beat me, especially at home.”

Later on, CV’s Brandon Brown won a hard-fought 6-1 decision over Tony Curtis at 148.

Still the Bears were only up 26-23 when Courtney Brown took the mat.

“I was going to wrestle him at 178, but he told me he could win (at 168),” said Ethridge. “You could tell it was his first match back, but you could also tell he’s an athlete.”

Bliss admitted that the Bears can be a state titlist pointing out that it was essentially the same team that finished second to him two years ago while he was at Auburn.

“I knew it was going to be tough”, said Ethridge. “One of the keys was we wrestled as a team.”

Kintner, however, said that there is lots of work left to be done.

“We need to work on getting into shape if we’re going to be GSL champs,” he said.

Following the tough loss to the Bears, Mead must regroup for tonight’s second home match, against 1-1 University.

Rogers 43, North Central 21

Strong in the upper middle weights, the Pirates won their second straight GSL match.

They trailed 21-19 before winning the night’s final four matches by pin.

Kris Clarke at 148 pounds and Brandon Lang at 168 pinned in the first round. John Smith at 158 and David Decaro at 178 won in the second round.

A pivotal early match came at 275 when Marshall Sims was nearly pinned, then rallied in the third period. He won over Dave Phillips 9-8 on a third-period reversal with about 45 seconds remaining.

University 43, Mt. Spokane 26

Sophomore 190-pounder Gordon Moore scored a takedown with 30 seconds remaining for an opening-match victory that sent the Titans on their way.

U-Hi built a 15-0 lead and improved it to 29-6 before weathering a Mt. Spokane (0-2) comeback.

Adam Gumke beat Ben Peterson 2-0 in overtime at 141 and three other Wildcats won by pin to keep things close

Gonzaga Prep 51, LC 9

The unbeaten Bullpups (2-0) had little trouble against the Tigers (0-2), winning the first six matches for a 29-0 lead.

In a close match at 101 points, Bullpup Jeff Zappone held on to an 11-9 victory by staving off Tyler Menzel’s rally.

Ferris 53, Shadle Park 10

The Saxons (1-1) won the night’s first nine matches during their easy win over winless Shadle.’ Included were three pins as Ferris built a 39-0 lead.

Saxon 115-pounder Dustin Devleming overcame a 6-1 deficit in the third period for an 8-6 win. He won with a near fall in the final 15 seconds.

Matt Largent’s pin and Steve Webb’s major decision provided the first Shadle wins this year.

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