Notre Dame Earns State Duals Berth With 45-33 Win

East Ridge Downs Central Before Falling To Fighting Irish

Saturday, January 24, 2015
John Hunt

The Notre Dame wrestling team is peaking at the right time.

It's been an up and down season for the Fighting Irish and for the first time all year, they have a full lineup.

And now they can start making plans for next weekend's State Duals in Franklin after beating East Ridge for the second time in three days.

The Irish beat East Ridge by eight points on Thursday night at East Ridge, forcing a three-way tie between those two and Central. Because the A-AA teams don't have a Region Duals, they had to have a wrestle-off at Central Saturday night.

East Ridge improved to 22-7 with an impressive 44-25 win over Central in the first match, but the Fighting Irish were just a bit too strong as Notre Dame prevailed in the main event by a 45-33 final.

"It seems like we've been working all season to get our team assembled, but with football, academics and injuries, it's been a struggle, but we're finally putting it all together," said Notre Dame coach John Mullin once the excitement had ended.

"We came in here with a lot of confidence as these guys are wrestling for each other, but we're getting it all together just in the nick of time," Mullin added.

Notre Dame knows what it's like to compete at the State Duals, but it's been several years since they finished as the runner-up in 2009. However, they were the A-AA champions for the three years prior, so they appear ready to compete at the Williamson County Expo Center next weekend.

Tabrin Walker's pin in the first match at 138 pounds gave East Ridge a 6-0 lead, but Notre Dame came back with pins from Casey Brock and Noah Bankston sandwiched around a forfeit to Packy Mullin and the Irish had the upper hand at 18-6.

Just as quickly, the Pioneers reeled off three straight wins, including an overtime decision from Matthew Mapp at 170, a pin from DeAngelo Johnson at 182 and a win by disqualification for Andrew Mapp, who was on the receiving end of an illegal slam in the 195-pound match.

That 21-18 East Ridge lead didn't last long as Patrick Johnson's pin gave Notre Dame the lead for the last time as the Irish won five of the next six matches.

Heavyweight Hunter Whiting received a forfeit while Tucker Gill was a 10-3 winner at 106. Luke Mullin and Ned Warwick then had pins at 120 and 126 with Warwick's second-period fall clinching the win for the Irish.

Hunter Owens had a second-period pin for East Ridge at 113 to draw the Pioneers to within 33-27, but those next two pins put the match out of reach before Notre Dame forfeited to Spencer Griffey at 132 to finalize the deal.

East Ridge coach Chris Bird certainly had no complaints about the effort his team put forth. Bird kept thinking about long-time East Ridge assistant coach Charlie Goss, who died 13 days ago.

"Charlie was all about battling and competing and that's what we did tonight," Bird explained.

"This was a wonderful thing and my hat's off to Notre Dame because they had the better team tonight. We just got out-manned, but we're peaking at the right time. We have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of as nobody on my team laid down. We gave it everything we had," Bird nodded.

The Pioneers were indeed impressive in their first match against Central when they had four pins, two technical falls and a major decision to go along with one disqualification.

Darian Smith, Kashawn Cosey, Hunter Owens and Logan McDonald all had pins while Griffy and Johnson both had technical falls. Walker had the major decision while Jalyn Allen won by disqualification when his Central opponent was charged with an illegal slam.

Central countered with a pin from Kaleb Cook, a major decision from Bryson Lemons, a forfeit to Sam Stephenson and decisions to Xavier Norwood, Brian Sledge and Curtis Noiseaux.

Central coach John Lennon didn't appear to be unhappy with the way his team competed.

"We fought as hard as we could, but I got out-coached in a couple of places. It came down to the coin toss and things didn't go well for us as we just didn't match up well with them. But they whipped us fair and square and I think they got most of the bonus points.

"But we're just thrilled to be able to host an evening like this and I think everyone benefitted from it," Lennon concuded.

While Central and East Ridge can resume preparation for the upcoming Region tournament in a couple of weeks, Notre Dame will join Hixson as the other A-AA team in Franklin next weekend.

EAST RIDGE 44, CENTRAL 25

(Match began at 132 Pounds)

106 -- Kashawn Cosey (ER) pinned Austin Biddy, :27;

113 -- Hunter Owens (ER) pinned Jimmy Herrera, 1:58;

120 -- Logan McDonald (ER) pinned Manuel Bernal, 2:44;

126 -- Bryson Lemons (Cen) major dec. over Josh Williams, 10-2;

132 -- Spencer Griffy (ER) won by technical fall over Hans Casseus, 2:09;

138 -- Tabrin Walker (ER) major dec. over Isaac Coffman, 13-5;

145 -- Jalyn Allen (ER) won by disqualication over Alonso Heyward;

152 -- Kaleb Cook (Cen) pinned Tyler Bell, 3:59;

160 -- Xavier Norwood (Cen) dec. Matthew Mappk, 2-0;

170 -- Darian Smith (ER) pinned Terry Blackburn, 1:51;