C.B. Aycock pins E. Wayne wrestling

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on January 19, 2012 1:48 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- Charles B. Aycock claimed the pivotal match and continued its mastery over a county archrival on the wrestling mat Wednesday evening.

Khaleil Owens' injury default victory at 160 pounds sealed the Golden Falcons' 49-27 triumph over Eastern Wayne in Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference play, and kept Aycock in position for a dual-team playoff berth.

The loss mathematically eliminated the Warriors from postseason contention.

"They haven't wrestled since the Falcon Invitational and am sure they had this date marked on their calendar," said third-year Golden Falcons' head coach Marc Peck. "They came well-prepared, I think. They were in good condition, their kids were sharp and they made it a real contest. (But) the match went pretty much as scripted, no real surprises.

"This was a great team effort by my young men."

Aycock improved to 18-0 against Eastern Wayne since 2001.

"I told the guys we're going 100-percent after them, even if it means we have to bump guys (in the lineup)," said third-year Warriors' head coach Jon Jones. "We're going to play our best hand and see how it plays out. We knew coming into this (match), we had to step up somewhere.

"I felt like I had the matchups we wanted."

Experience and mistakes proved critical.

The Warriors put nine sophomores, two juniors, two seniors and one freshman on the mat. The Golden Falcons (26-4 overall, 2-1 ECC) countered with seven juniors, two seniors and three freshmen.

Aycock recorded the initial takedown in seven of 12 contested individual bouts, and won all seven including five pins. Eastern Wayne (11-14, 0-3) posted the first points in five matches, and prevailed on just three occasions. The Warriors also drew two forfeits once the outcome had been decided.

"As new and young as we are, I'm really not disappointed," said Jones.

Heavyweight Blake Terrell put the Warriors on the board with a first-period fall over Matthew Teachey. The Golden Falcons responded with a 23-3 run that included Zach Howard's tech fall over Brice Heller, and pins by Nick Jones, David Romo and Daniel Romo.

Aycock extended its advantage to 31-15 with Preston Tucker's pin at 145 and Jaquan Walker's come-from-behind, 22-10 major decision over Julian Bruton at 152 pounds.

That set up the pivotal match at 160 between Owens and defending ECC champion Austin Helm. Helm controlled the tempo for the first 2 1/2 periods before Owens reversed Helm onto his back and picked up two nearfall points.

Helm escaped, which closed the gap to 8-6, but started cramping in the final minute of the match. He burned all of his injury time, which gave Owens the win and denied Helm his 99th career win.

"That was key for us," said Peck. "Their contest could quite possibly be a regionals final preview."

The teams split the final four matches. Quadrick Williams and Jamal Barrett each received a forfeit for Eastern Wayne, while Broc Doyle (189) and Jorge Flores (220) each pinned their respective opponent. Doyle returned after a month-long absence due to an injured rib.