Mansfield High Wrestling Edges King Philip

It wasn’t easy, but the M completed a terrific Hockomock League dual-meet campaign with a very hard-fought 37-36 victory over King Philip in a Large School Division contest Thursday night in Wrentham.

The victory improved the Hornets to 13-4 overall on the season, including an impressive 7-1 mark in the Hockomock League. Mansfield, which has now won six straight dual meets, also completed its division slate with a 3-1 mark, the only loss coming to division and league-meet champion Franklin.

King Philip completed its dual-meet schedule with an 8-12 overall record. The Warriors also finished 3-5 in the league and 0-3 in the Large School Division. King Philip’s league wins this winter came against Sharon, Stoughton and Canton.

On Thursday night, Mansfield took a 6-0 lead against King Philip when senior Brett Reed pinned Kevin Brynes at 1:17 of the first period at 103 pounds. The Warriors tied the match at 6-6 when Logan David pinned Hornet freshman Aurian Dawkins at 3:45 of the second period at 112 pounds.

Tom Yang gave the hosts a 9-6 advantage with an exciting 1-0 victory in overtime against Mansfield sophomore Sam McLoughlin at 119. But the Hornets bounced back to take the lead at 10-9 when sophomore Joe Herrick defeated Joe Rico by major decision, 9-1, at 125 pounds.

That win would begin a run of 13 consecutive points for Mansfield. Senior Domenick Auld continued the terrific end to his Hornet career, defeating Nate Raiput by technical fall, 16-1, at 130 pounds. Junior Tom Maguire pushed the Mansfield advantage to 19-9, beating Chris Kehoe by a major decision, 9-0.

However, King Philip responded with three consecutive pins and the 18 points that went with them to take a 27-19 lead. Warrior standout Austin Brais got the run going by pinning Hornet freshman Max Trowbridge at 1:15 of the opening period at 140 pounds to cut the Mansfield lead to 19-15.

Matt Schlabach got the hosts six more points when he pinned Mansfield senior Ryan McCaffrey at 3:02 of the second period of their match at 145. That gave the Warriors a 21-19 lead and Will Purdue extended that advantage with a pin at the 2:14 mark of the second period over Forrest Holmes at 152, pushing the Warrior lead to 27-19.

But Mansfield halted that surge when junior Derrion Walker pinned Jake Brier at the one-minute mark of the first period at 160 pounds. That gave the Hornets six points and pulled them within two at 27-25.

A forfeit victory by Tyler Florio at 171 gave King Philip six points and allowed the team to increase it lead to 33-25. But a pin by senior captain Mike Trowbridge against Samad Khan at 51 seconds of the opening period at 189 pounds drew Mansfield to within two at 33-31. A forfeit win by senior captain Kyle McGuire at 215 pounds would give Mansfield six points and the lead for good at 37-33.

That meant all senior Mike Collins had to do during his match at 285 pounds against King Philip’s Lee Slammin was  avoid either being pinned or allowing Slammin to get a major decision and the Hornets would earn a hard-fought win.

Collins only allowed a pair of escapes by Slammin during the match, which accounted for just two points and a 2-0 win. That victory gave the Warriors three additional points, but left them one point short at the end of the match, 37-36.

A major-decision victory by Slammin would have given King Philip a 37-37 deadlock in the meet, while a pin would have scored six points and given the Warriors a 39-37 win.

With the league campaign completed, Mansfield will compete in the Division 1 South Sectional Team Tournament on Saturday at Durfee High in Fall River. King Philip will take part in the Division 2 Central Sectional Team Tournament on Saturday in Marlboro.