jgreen@newsobserver.com
Corinth Holders' Matt Duncan tries to take Croatan's Brandon McCorkle off his feet during the second round of the Class 2-A Dual Team Playoffs Tuesday night.
CORINTH HOLDERS -- Corinth Holders wrestling team reached the 30-win plateau in the first round of the Class 2-A Dual Team Playoffs Tuesday night, but two-time defending state champion Croatan ended the Pirates’ campaign with a 52-17 triumph in a second-round match.
“Croatan is who they are – the two-time defending state champions,” said Corinth coach James McNamara, whose team ended its dual season at 30-7. “They are the class of the East right now. We did get our 30th win tonight, so that was improvement for our program in terms of setting a standard for where we want to go.”
Corinth Holders, which lost to Burlington Cummings in the first round of last year’s playoffs, opened with a 56-24 victory over Providence Grove (16-18), the No. 2 seed out of the Mid-State Conference. The Patriots, a Randolph County school, had only 10 wrestlers and gave up 24 points after four forfeits.
The Pirates, the Northern Carolina Conference champions, took forfeits at 113 (Dustin Brennan), 120 (Mike Holley), 182 (Elliott Lindley) and 220 (Elijah Harris).
Corinth earned pinfall wins at 106 (Darius Dunn over Nick Hooker), 145 (Matt Duncan over Christian Yarbor), 152 (Charlie Gray over Landon Williams), 171 (Demetrius Smith over Benjamin Reid) and 195 (William Floyd over Joshua Register). The Pirates’ other victory came at 126, where Cameron Brewer blanked Tyler Becker 11-0.
The Patriots won the heavyweight match when Matt Smith pinned Lance Wheeler, and Wheeler’s unsportsmanlike conduct cost CHHS a point, and also won at 132 (Cameron Suits pinned Chris Benson), at 138 (Blake Becker pinned Gavin Ciampa) and at 160 (Trent Jones pinned David Pierson).
Croatan began its drive for a three-peat by rolling past Roanoke Rapids 61-16. The Cougars picked up forfeits at 106 (Greyson Millis) and 120 (Dustin McCaw), decisions at 126 (Brody McGrath 11-0) and at 145 (Brandon McGrath 11-0) as well as pinfalls at 113 (Mike Bray), 138 (Sam Slater), 152 (Jon Mancini), 160 (Robert Benson), 170 (Andrew Colborn), 182 (Caleb Carpenter) and 220 (Kyle Colborn).
Croatan then started fast against Corinth Holders, winning the first five matches to take a 30-0 lead.
At 106, Millis held a 10-2 lead before Dunn rallied 10-7, eventually holding on for a 13-7 decision and three points.
Bray pinned Brennan at 113 and McCaw did the same against Holley to give the Cougars 20 points. Josh Paderick then won by injury default over Chris Benson at 132 and Slater pinned Ciampa at 138.
Corinth finally got on the scoreboard when Duncan pinned McCorkle in the second period – the only six points the Pirates would get without a forfeit.
Croatan made it 34-6 when Mancini decisioned Gray 9-1 at 152. At 160, Robert Benson pinned Pierson and Andrew Colborn decisioned Smith 4-1 at 170 (Smith’s unsportmanlike behavior costs the Pirates a team point) to make it 43-5.
Carpenter pinned Lindley at 182 and Kyle Colborn won 4-0 over Floyd at 195 to complete the scoring for Croatan.
Corinth scored its last 12 points as result of forfeits at 220 (Harris) and 285 (Wheeler).
“We knew Corinth Holders had a good dual record coming in,” said Croatan coach David Perry. “Anytime you can get two wins in the Dual Playoffs, you are doing well. The sectional round is where we wanted to be after tonight.”
Corinth will next focus its attention on the Class 2-A Eastern Regional, which is scheduled for Feb. 17-18 at Croatan High School.
