Rosewood claims Brawl on the Mat title

By News-Argus Staff
Published in Sports on January 20, 2014 1:47 PM

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DEEP RUN -- Playoff-bound Rosewood claimed the Brawl on the Mat championship contested inside Munn Gymnasium at South Lenoir High School on Saturday.

The Eagles (38-2 overall) defeated Pamlico County, Clinton and West Carteret in pool action. They secured the team title with a 54-18 romp over county foe Eastern Wayne.

"I thought we wrestled our best match to date against West Carteret," said RHS head coach Bill Edmundson, whose team defeated the Patriots, 44-29. "West defeated Havelock earlier this week, and Havelock beat us by one (point) last Saturday (at the Firebird Duals).

"We knew this would be a great opportunity for us. West is very well-coached, and extremely patient and disciplined. Our guys were able to avoid getting pinned in several key matchups and that made a huge difference in the outcome."

Rosewood, the Carolina-Coastal 10 champion, captured eight of 12 individual contested matches in its second meeting of the season against Eastern Wayne. Joseph Waters (145 pounds), Kaleb Smith (160), heavyweight Kaleb Taylor, Malique Boyd (113), David Dotson (120) and Sam Drew (132) each pinned their respective opponent.

Junior Josh Drew turned back the Warriors' Quadrick Williams, 6-5, at 170 pounds. The loss snapped Williams' 15-match win streak. Fellow Eagle Evan Reiss, who continues to battle an ACL injury, hung on to defeat Justice Johnson, 4-2, at 152 pounds.

Garner Beasley drew Rosewood's lone forfeit.

"The guys have really bought into the philosophy of team effort, fighting for points and minimizing individual losses to as few points as possible," Edmundson said. "No one wants to be the weak weight class in our line-up, so they all push each other every day to solidify their position."

Eastern Wayne (12-13) received individual wins from 138-pounder Kevon Tune, Rashaun Pridgen (195), Mario Harper (106) and Cainen Miller (126).

The Warriors cruised past East Duplin and 2-A dual-team playoff qualifer North Lenoir. They fell to West Carteret.

Directed by head coach Michael Daughtry, the Warriors return home Wednesday against archrival Charles B. Aycock. The winner earns the lone automatic 3-A dual-team playoff bid from the Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference.