SCOTT WEST WINS ROYAL BATTLE!
The #6 rated Panthers win 30-21 over #7 rated Watertown-Mayer Lutheran.

The Scott West wrestling team upped their record to 24-5 in Belle Plaine on Friday night as the Panthers closed out their regular season of wrestling with a 30-21 win over Minnesota's #7 rated team in Class AA, the Watertown-Mayer Lutheran Royals.  "It was a Royal Battle!" exclaims Scott West Wrestling coach Darren Ripley.  With both teams in Section 2AA, the win will most likely give Scott West the number 1 seed heading into this week's Section 2AA Team Tournament that will be held in Montgomery.  "It was a hard fought meet by both teams and we got a good team effort," states coach Ripley.  "The #1 is seed is what we wrestled for tonight," claims coach Ripley.  "However, a seed does not put you in the State Tournament and that's what we will be wrestling for next week."

The "Royal Battle" would begin with three battles in the lightweight divisions of 103, 112 and 119.  Watertown-Mayer Lutheran would come out on the winning end of all three low scoring matches as the Royals got a win from #3 rated Drew Fleming at 103 as he scored a late, third period reversal to win 4-2 over #4 rated Panther Lee Goldberg.  The Fleming win was followed by a 2-1 Joey Stadnick win at 112 as the #7 rated Royal wrestler made a first period take down stand up over Panther Tyler Zilverberg.  Tenth-rated Brandon Henrich would make it a sweep of the first three weight classes for the visiting Royals as the 119 pounder held on to a 4-2 win over Jake Siegle.  "We knew coming into the meet that there were going to be several close, hard fought matches," insists coach Ripley.  "The fight was on!"

After Drake Matuska gave the Royals a 15-0 team lead by pinning Francis Dvorak in the first period at 125, Mark Dvorak would break the scoring ice for the Panthers as he scored a dramatic 5-4 victory over Bill McCain at 130.  Trailing 4-3 with just seven seconds left in the match, Dvorak switched McCain for a match winning reversal that gave the Panthers their first three team points of the meet.   "We needed somebody to break the ice," comments coach Ripley.  "I would say that is Mark's biggest win for the team since his 8th grade year when he picked up a couple of big team wins over STMA and Milaca."

The Dvorak win would prove to be a big team win as it ignited the Panthers on what would become a six match winning streak as Tanner Adamek followed with a solid 4-0 win over Matt White at 135, Tyler Kivel went out and blanked a very good wrestler in Max Poikonen 5-0 at 140, Tony Valek recorded a fall of Chad Jones at 145, Gabe Dvorak continued the shutout trend as he put a 4-0 win together against Jon Dailing at 152.  "We put together a good stretch of solid and in good position wrestling here," insists coach Ripley.  "We didn't allow them to score a point in four straight matches."

The Dvorak win at 152 gave Scott West its first team lead at 18-15 and Dillon Fogarty would close out the Panther six match winning streak pretty much in the same manner as it had started.  Trailing Watertown's Taylor Neaton 2-0 late in the match, Fogarty would be awarded one point for a stalling call and then would reverse the Royal wrestler with less than five seconds remaining in the match to get a 3-2 win at 160.  "We always stress that you have to wrestle six minutes and that you have to score the last points of the period," states coach Ripley.  "Fortunately, we were able to do that a couple of times tonight."

The Royals would come back to tie the team score (21-21) at 171 as #1 rated Eric Reinert would score a third period pin of Kyle McDermand.  However, the Panthers would come back to win the last three matches of the meet and secure the 30-21 team win behind Connor Fogarty's 4-0 win over Brad Falde at 189, Alex Krautkremer's 3-2 win over Nate Dickhausen at 215 and Travis Hentges 4-0 win over Derek Ernst at heavyweight.  "Again, all three wrestlers stayed in good position and made points hard to come by," states coach Ripley.  "Krautkremer's win was especially big because Dickhausen had defeated him earlier at the Christmas Tournament and it gave us an insurmountable six point team lead in this meet."  See you at the mat and Go Panthers!