Snohomish ekes out win over M-P

Published 11:31 pm Thursday, December 6, 2007

SNOHOMISH — Luke Perry, in the words of his coach, has been around “hot” wrestling matches since he was a baby.

Nothing seemed hotter than the match Perry wrestled Thursday night with a dual-meet victory at stake against Marysville-Pilchuck.

Perry, needing at least a major decision in his match to register enough team points for Snohomish to win the meet, responded to the pressure in a huge way.

The sophomore 135-pounder won the final match of the night with a 16-0 major decision, giving Snohomish five team points for a 35-33 victory in the Wesco North opener for both teams.

Snohomish is 3-0 overall while Marysville-Pilchuck fell to 2-1.

Snohomish trailed 33-25 after Marysville-Pilchuck’s Matt Burns won the 125-pound match. Needing more than just decisions in the final two matches to win the meet, Panthers wrestlers did just that.

Sam Ottow stormed through the 130-pound match and won a 21-5 technical fall, pulling Snohomish within three points in the team score.

Then Perry, the son of former Snohomish coach Mark Perry, who is now the school’s football coach, took the mat against Marysville-Pilchuck sophomore Luke Shumaker.

“Luke has been around wrestling all his life and I think he knew with about five matches to go that it would come down to him,” Snohomish coach Kevin Judkins said. “He knows the sport and he thrives under that. He’s been around hot matches since he was a baby because his dad was a coach.”

“Hot” was an appropriate description.

Perry quickly registered a takedown and near fall to take a 5-0 lead in the first round, then spread it to 10-0 after the second. An escape, another takedown and another near fall in the third period gave him enough points for the technical fall and the team points Snohomish needed for a two-point meet victory.

“Luke really stepped in for us,” Judkins said. “He wrestled a great final match.”

Just as important for Snohomish was 285-pound Jake Reinhard’s pin in the eighth match of the night.

Marysville-Pilchuck’s Michael Pfeiff had Reinhard on his back early in the first period and built a 5-0 lead. It was 5-1 going into the second period before Reinhard took control. He scored the pin with 1:23 remaining in the period.

“The heavyweight match could have gone both ways, and that probably spun the meet,” Marysville-Pilchuck coach Craig Iversen said.

Marysville-Pilchuck won the next four matches, including pins by Demitri Robinson at 103 pounds and Brandon Blevins at 119 as the Tomahawks took an eight-point lead.

Ottow and Perry pulled Snohomish from behind with their victories in the final two matches.

“It was a heartbreaker,” Iversen said. “Whenever you get that close, the bonus points really come into play. The majors and technical falls ended up playing a key part.”

Still, Iversen was happy that a fairly young team nearly pulled off a victory over a strong Snohomish squad.

“You hate to be pleased with a loss, but we fought hard,” Iversen said. “We had some pretty young puppies out there who showed character. Snohomish has a great squad.”

Judkins also was happy considering his team competed without three of its key wrestlers, including 140-pounder Brad Perry. He missed the meet to attend a scholarship awards banquet.

“As much as he wanted to be here, there will be other matches to wrestle,” Judkins said. “If we say we’re as good as we are, we’ve got to be able to have a couple of kids out of the lineup and still do it. We’ll be close to full strength next week when we go up against Cascade and Arlington, so we’ll be able to tell more about what we’re made of.”

At Snohomish H.S.

140—St. Marie (S) pinned Wallace at 1:30 of second round; 145—Garcia (S) major dec. over Madonia 11-3; 152—Johnson (M-P) def. Dellino 2-0; 160—Mead (M-P) 17-2 technical fall over Birkland; 171—Coffman (S) def. Carlton 9-6; 189—Carballo (S) pinned Roan at 1:31 of second round; 215—Hillis (M-P) pinned Britton at 34 seconds of third round; 285—Reinhard (S) pinned Pfeiff at 37 seconds of second round; 103—Robinson (M-P) pinned Lucey at 1:51 of first round; 112—Donaldson (M-P) 12-4 major dec. over Hise; 119—Blevins (M-P) pinned Machado at 1:19 of second round; 125—Burns (M-P) def. Strong 8-3; 130—Ottow (S) 21-5 technical fall over Lervold; 135—Luke Perry (S) 16-0 major dec. over Shumaker.