Queen Creek rallies past Rams in first meet of wrestling season

The Maricopa High School wrestling team built a big lead in Thursday’s season-opening dual meet at Queen Creek, but the host Bulldogs came back to post a 45-34 victory over the Rams.

“I’m satisfied overall with how our guys performed,” Maricopa coach Conroy Bowman said. “We’re obviously supporting each other as soon as we come off the mat. Win, lose or draw, we just want to support one another. We have some young guys that are just learning.”

After the Rams swept the first five matches to take a 28-0 lead in the meet, the Bulldogs won eight of the last nine. Included were three forfeit victories for Queen Creek in weight classes where Maricopa did not have a wrestler.

“Right now we are a little thin,” Bowman said after the meet. “We had a couple guys wrestling a little bit higher (in weight class) than what they’re used to.”

In the opening match at 171 pounds, Maricopa senior Joey Kelly scored a 13-4 major decision over Queen Creek’s Tyler Nilsen. After the first period ended with the score tied 2-2, Kelly took control by scoring five points in the second period to take a 7-2 lead. He increased his advantage in the third and final period to earn the major decision, which netted four team points for the Rams.

At 189 pounds, Maricopa sophomore Kyle Kingery pinned Austin King of Queen Creek in the second period to give the Rams a 10-0 lead.

Maricopa senior Sean Dodge followed with a second-period pin of Dalton Tebbs at 215, and senior heavyweight Dre Diaz then battled back from an early 4-0 deficit to pin Queen Creek’s Daniel Oaks.

Sky Murcek, a 103-pound freshman, increased Maricopa’s lead in the meet to 28-0 by recording a pin in his first varsity match. Murcek had scored 14 unanswered points in his bout against Blake Ferrin when he ended the match with a third-period pin.

The Bulldogs began their comeback when Devan Adkins pinned Maricopa’s Collin Blackburn at 112 pounds. Michael Uribe of Queen Creek followed with a pin of Bradley Thompson at 119, and the Bulldogs won the 125-pound weight class by forfeit.

After Queen Creek pulled within 28-24 with Sheldon Solomon’s pin of Fermin Salvidar at 130 pounds, Maricopa got a first-period pin by Jacob Lara at 135. Lara’s pin of Brant Fuhriman gave the Rams a 34-24 lead, but the Bulldogs closed out the meet by scoring 21 consecutive points.

Following a forfeit victory for Queen Creek at 140 pounds, the Bulldogs’ Kolton Lock scored a pin over Adolfo Franco at 145.

Airam Moreno won an 11-5 decision over Maricopa’s Shakeel Becker at 152, and the Bulldogs got a meet-ending forfeit at 160.

“We started just a little bit slow with our first match,” Bowman said about the loss in the season-opening dual meet. “It comes with the territory. Getting out there and shaking out the cobwebs is where we really have to get started with.”

The Rams will wrestle in another dual meet on Wednesday at Apache Junction. Later this month, Maricopa will compete in tournaments at Tempe McClintock (Dec. 17-18) and Tucson Ironwood Ridge (Dec. 29-30).