Preview: County rivals grapple in Pikeville

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on January 21, 2015 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

PIKEVILLE -- The rivalry between Charles B. Aycock and Eastern Wayne on the baseball diamond is a two-game, regular-season series that has more than twists and turns than a TV soap opera.

It's undoubtedly the most gut-wrenching 14 innings that leaves anyone exhausted who attends the games.

Wrestling is a close second.

When the Golden Falcons and Warriors meet on the mat, anything can happen -- and it has since their first official battle in 2002. One or more mistakes have factored into the outcome, knocked the wind out one team and made it almost impossible to come back.

Tonight shouldn't be any different.

The stakes are high.

Aycock, the benchmark program on the Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference scene, needs a victory to secure its 17th consecutive appearance in the dual-team playoffs. Plus, the Golden Falcons would claim their first regular-season title since 2011 and seventh overall in the ECC era.

The Warriors haven't reached the postseason since 2009 and have lost all 25 meetings against the Golden Falcons.

"Eastern Wayne is a good team and well coached, and we need to really give it everything we've got," second-year CBA head coach RJ Allen said. "We've got senior night, so the team is going to want to perform well (and) we want the seniors to go out on a good note.

"We'll probably have a fairly good-sized crowd."

The Golden Falcons (14-8 overall, 4-0 ECC) enter the pivotal dual on the heels of a seventh-place finish in the Jolly Roger Invitational. Jacob Dickenson (120 pounds), Zack Howard (132) and Josh Wallace (152) each placed second in their respective weight division. The trio has combined for nearly 100 individual victories this season.

Teammates Justin (195) and Brandon Washington (220) each took fourth place.

Although Allen's team turned in a better effort team-wise, it exited disappointed -- let down in a sense that more wrestlers should have earned a medal.

Eastern Wayne (7-16, 2-2) started slow due to the success of its football team that reached the eastern 3-A championship game for the second straight season. The players who joined the team are now getting in wrestling shape and the work has paid off over the last month.

The Warriors have won 7 of their 18 dual matches after an 0-5 start, according to trackwrestling.com. They are led by six seniors -- Larry Newsome III, Justice Johnson, Delyn Coley, Andre Smith, Andre Collie and heavyweight Bryan Wooten.

Mario Harper, a 106-pound sophomore, leads the team with 14 victories. Junior Kyler Sprague (138) has 13 wins, while Wooten has 11 wins.

Allen doesn't expect either team to change its strategy from a year ago. Avoid pins, take advantage of what your opponent gives you and wrestle smart for six minutes.

"Some of those matches that might be questionable on our side, we have to make sure they don't go to their back," Allen said. "If you give up five or six pins in a dual match, you're going to lose. (A conference title) has been our goal from the onset of the season.

"We just don't want to win the 3-A (portion), but we want to win the (entire) 3-A/4-A (conference) and really make a statement that Aycock wrestling is (back) on the map and it's only going to get better from here."

But a hungry archrival stands in the way.