Wrestling: Douglas gets big win over Wooster

With five forfeit wins under its belt before even taking to the mat Wednesday night, it was a fair bet the Douglas wrestling team was going to cruise to an easy win over the Wooster Colts.

In the contested matches, though, the Tigers put on a show, winning five of seven with three pins and a major decision.

The best match of the night came in the 189-pound bracket between Douglas' Zach Falanga and Wooster's Eric Sexton.

Falanga fought through the first period with a 3-1 lead and extended it to 4-1 with an early escape after starting the second in the down position.

Sexton tied it up with a takedown shortly thereafter and went up 6-3 went he turned the takedown into a near fall.

Falanga got a point back when Sexton was called for an illegal hold. After the start of the third, an escape put Sexton back up 7-4.

With 1:16 left in the match, Falanga scored another takedown to cut the score to 7-6 and re-took the lead 9-7 on a near fall.

Sexton, though, came up with a quick escape to draw within one at 9-8.

A near fall made it 12-8 in favor of Falanga, but Sexton quickly answered with a reversal to cut it to 12-10. A Falanga reverse, though, make it 14-10 which was a lead he was able to keep as time ran out.

The decision gave the Tigers a 27-15 lead in the team tally and Ryan Paiz used the following 215-pound bout to essentially put the match out of reach.

He scored a quick takedown off the start and pushed that into a nice pin only 21 seconds into the match to give Douglas a 33-15 team lead.

After double forfeits at 103 and 112, a forfeit win for Wes Peterson put Douglas up 57-27.

Dillon Spates had a nice match in the 125-pound bout, earning a 13-5 major decision to give Douglas a 61-27 lead.

That set up Michael Sepulveda in the evening's final bout at 130 pounds against Wooster Ferris McKenzie.

A quick takedown and near fall gave Sepulveda a 5-0 lead. Another near fall made it 8-0 and yet another near fall made it 11-0.

Sepulveda allowed an escape to make it 11-1, by the following 20-second exchange when takedown, escape, takedown, escape, takedown to push the score to 17-3.

He turned the final takedown into a pin at 1:26 to send the Tigers out the door with a 67-27 win.

Harlan Paiz had a nice pin in 1:32 after falling back 2-0 against Wooster's Tyler Krill in the 171-pound match.

Forfeit wins went to Patrick Miller (heavyweight), Kyle Matthews (160) and Austin Martin (135).

Douglas' two losses on the night went to 140-pounder Cody Spates in a hard-fought 4-3 decision against rival Steven Elcigue and 145-pounder Sean Merritt, who was pinned in 1:20 against Wooster's Alex Hazeltine.

Douglas improved to 2-1 in Sierra League duals and will host Manogue Wednesday at 6 p.m.