Coaches working on point strategies is as old as the invention of the scoreboard. Every point was going to matter Tuesday as two area heavyweights, Wawasee and East Noble, collided at the Hardwood Teepee. And while East Noble made the match official with a late pin to close out a 47-34 victory over the Warriors, head coach Jamie Salazar spent a fair amount of time speaking of the value of the points traded throughout the match.

“It’s situational with some of our kids,” noted Salazar. “Getting pinned with time running out in the period, not getting off bottom on the restart. We had a few kids tonight, for whatever reason, not show enough fight. When you have a program like East Noble come into your house, you gotta show them this is our place and not get pushed around.”

Wawasee did start off on the right foot, taking a 17-11 lead after a solid tech fall from Gaige Boyd and a pair of clinical first period pins from Ethan Rodriguez and Carson Nine. But the numbers game shifted back to East Noble almost immediately with a pair of first round pins and then another six from state-ranked Dylan Krehl, giving the Knights an 18-point swing and forcing the Wawasee staff to start a lot of quick math on the near bench.

Derek Morrison ended East Noble’s win streak with yet another one of his signature pins, working Alex Brennan off his feet and finding his window of opportunity. The pin at 1:18 would be almost mandatory as Wawasee gave up the 285 card with Lyam Moseman out of the lineup, giving the Knights the 12-point advantage once again with just 24 points left available.

The Warriors finally filled the 106 spot on the varsity line for the first time this season, Cylus Melching slotting into the card. And while Melching hung around through a tough first period, Levi Schlictmyer put the Warrior freshman away with a pin in the second period. All was not lost for Wawasee, however, as Garrett Tittle came through with a huge pin at 113, and with East Noble stud Kealan Fuller out of the lineup, Cam Senter was almost a shoe-in to get Wawasee in position to at least draw a criteria win.

Senter was dominant as expected, however, Gunnar Smithson just wouldn’t submit. After a 14-1 first period in favor of Senter, decisions were being made on the Wawasee bench as to what could and should happen. Senter would open the period where he should have, in control on top and did what he figured was enough for the six call from Hall of Fame referee Henry Wilk. His pin combination on the near edge of the circle, however, didn’t convince Wilk enough to call for a pin, rather a takedown and near four to enact the tech fall, a 21-1 result that left the Wawasee contingent in a weird state of disbelief, disappointment and pride in the matter of two breaths.

“You can’t fault Cam at all, he did everything right,” stated Salazar. “He had his kid in a pin combination and Wilk didn’t think it was quite there. Sometimes that’s how it goes.”

The five points from the tech fall left Wawasee down seven, 41-34, and without some kind of miracle, the dual was lost. East Noble made sure there was no funny business, with Dane Pippenger holding off Isaac Ruff for a third-period pin to end the night.

Wawasee turns its focus to Thursday and the Northern Lakes Conference dual at NorthWood, where the Warriors look to move to 6-0 in the NLC standings. Mishawaka is currently 5-0 with duals against Northridge and Wawasee left, putting Wawasee in a state to control its own destiny to claim its first NLC regular season title since 1998. Of note, Mishawaka beat Penn head-to-head Tuesday night, 42-31.

“We’ve got a lot of wrestling to go, starting Thursday against NorthWood where we hopefully can pick up that win and be 6-0 heading into Mishawaka,” Salazar said. “That was a big goal of ours was to win conference, but we have some tough matches Saturday as well at the West Noble Invite. Prairie Heights is there, a state-ranked team, to go against. We had a great week of practice, a lot of live time. We just need to transition that into our matches.”

At Wawasee
East Noble 47, Wawasee 34

Varsity
132 – Connor Moseley (EN) pin Mattia Melli (:46)  0-6
138 – Gaige Boyd (W) tech fall Nate Harper (17-2)  5-6
144 – Andrew Wilson (EN) tech fall Kailyb Ferrer (20-3)  5-11
150 – Ethan Rodriguez (W) pin TJ Knox (1:09)  11-11
157 – Carson Nine (W) pin Andrew Oakes (1:26)  17-11
165 – Riley Biddle (EN) pin Moses Howard (1:14)  17-17
175 – Dallas Plattner (EN) pin Alex Dibble (1:05)  17-23
190 – Dylan Krehl (EN) pin Trayvon Senders (3:45)  17-29
215 – Derek Morrison (W) pin Alex Brennan (1:18)  23-29
285 – Jimmy Miller (EN) forfeit  23-35
106 – Levi Schlictmyer (EN) pin Cylus Melching (2:26)  23-41
113 – Garrett Tittle (W) pin Lucas Ravsh (2:17) 29-41
120 – Cam Senter tech fall Gunnar Smithson (21-2)  34-41
126 – Dane Pippenger (EN) pin Isaac Ruff (5:35)  34-47

JV
126 – Will Borker (EN) dec Zaidyn Ferrer (15-8)
132 – Dalton Yoder (W) pin Kyler Hudson (3:41)
150 – Kingston Sanchez (W) dec Connor Tarr (20-10)
157 – Kingston Brennaman (W) pin James Roger (:20)
157 – Kevin Murphy (EN) pin Devin Sewell (1:59)
175 – Brody Young (W) dec Hayden McCann (16-15)
190 – Marcus Mortoff (EN) inj def Blake Rolston (2nd period)