Princeton continues mastery over Spring Creek

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on January 22, 2010 1:46 PM

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SEVEN SPRINGS -- Princeton rallied from an early-match deficit and continued its mastery over Carolina 1-A Conference wrestling rival Spring Creek on Thursday evening.

The short-handed Dawgs spotted the Gators an 18-0 lead on three consecutive forfeits to start the match, but rebounded for a 45-30 road victory. It was Princeton's third triumph over Spring Creek this season.

"A nice win," said Dawgs coach Terry Braswell.

And a frustrating defeat for the Gators.

Princeton (4-14 overall) scored the initial takedown in all five contested bouts, and won four. Sophomore 125-pounder Matt Evans recorded a 35-second pin against the Gators' Ian Ladd. Teammate David Waddell seized a come-from-behind, 11-8 decision over David Smith at 130 pounds.

Bulldawg senior B.J. Creech secured his team-leading 20th victory with a first-period fall over Jerome Butts at 145 pounds. Forrest Stewart followed with a second-period fall over the Gators' Carson Gramley.

Spring Creek's Kevin Lipscomb pinned the Dawgs' Gabriel Teague in 86 seconds. It was just Lipscomb's fifth victory of the season.

"We've got to go back to the drawing board again," said Gators head coach Dwight Glenn. "We had a lot of forfeits we had to give away as well as we lost some (matches) that we should have won. We're getting better in small increments and as we get our young guys better, other teams are getting better, too.

"We're not being aggressive enough when we're on the mat. We have to take the first shot and not wait on our opponent to go after us. We didn't take the battle to them."

The teams combined for 54 points in forfeits.

Spring Creek (4-9) received four -- one each for Thomas Edwards, Raheem Fuller, Daniel Richter and Benson Robles. Richter has a team-high 15 victories and has won 10 consecutive matches since a loss to Southwest Onslow's Deontia Evans on Nov. 23, 2009.

Princeton's Drew Malarchik, Blake Wagner, Derek West and heavyweight James Hawley each drew a forfeit.