ELMA — In one of the last meets before both teams prepare for the postseason Aberdeen racked up five fall victories to earn a 54-27 victory over the Eagles in Elma on Thursday.
The Bobcats got the night off to a strong start with Caleb Lock getting a pin on Beadon McMillan at 1:37 in the first round in the 113-pound weight class.
Jeremy Roberts kept the momentum going for the Bobcats with a pinfall win over Tyler Bristow with 33 seconds left in the second round of their 120-pound match.
Elma also fell behind the eight ball with injuries that forced the Eagles to forfeit the next three matches.
Elma’s Taitum Brumfield, top, wrestles Aberdeen’s Joseph Bercier in a match on Thursday in Elma. Brumfield won the match by fall at 1:11 in the second round. (Hasani Grayson | Grays Harbor News Group)
Elma head coach Adam Catterlin thought his team performed better than what the score indicated.
“I like were we’re at. I wish we weren’t banged up but as far as getting better and peaking at the right time, we’re doing the right things,” he said.
Aberdeen head coach Jimmy Martin is also aware of how important health is at this point of the season and gave his grapplers credit for tolerating the bumps and bruises.
“The guys are pushing through. It’s illness season right now and it’s injury season because we’ve been wrestling a while, but the guys are being tough about it,” he said. “There are owies and there are injuries. They are pushing through the owies.”
With this non-league duel in the books, both teams have an eye on the postseason. Elma plans to take some time off to recover and will not compete again until sub-regionals.
Aberdeen is scheduled to compete in a 2A Evergreen League double-duel against Tumwater and Black Hills at 5 p.m. on Wednesday at Black Hills High School.
Martin didn’t think Thursday’s performance was perfect, but he thinks his team should be ready for sub-districts in a couple of weeks.
“We wrestled really good, but we have to clean some stuff up before postseason,” he said. “We’re still making those freshman and sophomore mistakes, but guys are progressing. This isn’t the most skilled team I’ve had, but this is the best team I’ve had.”
106 pounds — Joe Nelson (Aberdeen) won via forfeit
113 – Caleb Lock (A) defeats Beadon McMillan (Elma), fall, 1:37
120 – Jeremy Roberts (A) def. Tyler Bristow (E), fall, 2:33
126 – Camerin Harris (A) wins via forfeit
132 – Ashton Goings-Salario (A) wins via forfeit
138 – Patrick Hunt (A) wins via forfeit
145 – Yiatt Murphy-Voie (E) def. Tanner Fleury (A), fall, 4:39
152 – Bodie Wharton (A) def. l Brady Shriver (E), fall, 2:27
160 – Isiah O’Farrell (E) def. via fall Kobie Fall (A), fall 2:11
170 – Seth Brown (A) def. Trentin Alderman (E), fall, 3:06
182 – Nick Davis (A) wins via forfeit
195 – Taitum Brumfield (E) def. Joseph Bercier (A), fall 3:11
220 – Jacob Garcia (E) def. Jordan Hoseney (A), 6-3
285 – AJ Hernandez (E) def. Enrique Ontiveros (A), fall 2:57
BOYS PREP BASKETBALL
Aberdeen 41, Rochester 38 (OT)
Missing the presence of leading scorer Ben Dublanko, a shorthanded Aberdeen team used a staunch defense down the stretch to escape with a narrow 41-38 overtime victory on the road against Rochester.
The Bobcats (10-3, 2-2 Evergreen 2A) took a 31-24 lead into the fourth quarter, but some poor passing down the stretch allowed the Warriors (2-12, 0-4) to make a run and tie the game up at 36 with a few seconds to go.
Aberdeen drew up in an inbound play to hit the game winning-basket before the buzzer, but couldn’t get a clean look.
Points were hard to come by in overtime, but Aberdeen benefited from a clutch 3-point shot from Javier Bojorge with a minute into the extra period that gave his team some momentum.
Aberdeen head coach Mark Buckman said it was good to see some of his roll players step up when they were asked to play important minutes off the bench.
“We talked a lot about stepping up in his absence and we got a good game from John Ford. Dailen King grabbed important rebounds down the stretch that really helped us,” he said.
Aberdeen will be in action over the holiday weekend when they travel to Lower Columbia College for the MLK Classic starting at noon on Monday.
Aberdeen 11 9 11 5 5 – 41
Rochester 4 7 13 12 2 – 38
Top Players: Rochester — Patrick Rilley (18 pts.), Keegan Goldrick (12 pts.); Aberdeen — Bojorge (10 pts.), Ford (8 pts.), Derrell Shale (8 pts., 14 reb.)
Taholah 66, Wishkah Valley 21
Taholah jumped out to an 18-point lead at the end of the first quarter en route to a 66-21 win over Wishkah Valley on Thursday at Wishkah Valley High School.
Tommy Underwood scored 14 points to lead a Chitwhins team that had nine players score in the contest.
Jayson Mowitch added 10 points for Taholah (9-3, 5-0 Coastal 1B), which led 20-2 after the first quarter and 47-15 at the half.
Wishkah (1-4), which started the game with just one junior and no seniors in uniform, was led by Hunter Baltzell and Kolton Newbury with six points apiece.
Joey Brenneman added six steals and five rebounds for the Loggers.
Wishkah head coach Stefanie Baltzell said her team was overwhelmed against an older Taholah team.
“We battled hard the entire game. We struggled and Taholah undoubtedly outmatched us in experience and excellent floor play,” she said.
Taholah takes on Mary M. Knight at 5:45 p.m. on Friday in Elma.
Wishkah travels to Cosmopolis to face North River at 5:45 p.m. on Friday.
Wishkah 2 13 4 2 — 21
Taholah 20 27 21 8 — 66
Top Players: Taholah — Underwood (14 pts.), J. Mowitch (10 pts.), JauVon James-Juneau (9 pts.), James Dan (8 pts.), James Orozco (8 pts.); Wishkah — Baltzell (6 pts.), Newberry (6 pts.).
— Ryan Sparks, Grays Harbor News Group
