By Gregg Chappell
Moapa Valley Progress
Coming off of a one week break, Pirate wrestlers competed three days in a row last week.
The team traveled to Basic High School in Henderson on Wednesday, January 26, where they wrestled against the Wolves and the Green Valley Gators.
Moapa first went against the home team from Basic High School. The Wolves came out tough and jumped out to an early lead after three victories in a row leading 18 to 0. Unfortunately, Jake Repp missed making weight by 2/10 of a pound which gave six points to the Wolves even though Jake pinned his opponent at 112 pounds. The Pirates surged in the middle weights taking a 36 to 24 lead but couldn’t hold on and lost the match 36 to 45.
The second dual of the evening was with the Green Valley Gators. It is unknown if the Pirates have ever met the Gators in a team dual. Green Valley has traditionally had a strong wrestling team due to a great youth wrestling program which feeds experienced wrestlers into the lineup as freshmen. The Gators pulled out to a 15 to 6 lead through 130 pounds. Once again the middle weight class evened up the score and Moapa pulled ahead after Trevor Durham, 152 pounds, pinned his Gator opponent. The score after the 160 weight classification was Moapa Valley 30 Green Valley 21. The Pirates were able to maintain the lead and ended the dual beating Green Valley 42 to 39.
On Thursday, January 27, Moapa hosted a dual meet with Del Sol High School of Las Vegas. Del Sol is also a 4A school and was anticipated to be a worthy opponent. The Pirates wrestled tough and whipped the Sun Devils with a final score of 69 to 12.
Friday evening finished off the week of wrestling with the Pirates at home, dualing both teams in the 3A Southern Division, Virgin Valley and Boulder City. This is the last time that the three schools will see each other until the division tournament on February 12.
Virgin Valley and Boulder City faced off in the first dual of the afternoon and to no surprise the Eagles pounded the Bulldogs 70 to 12.
The second dual of the evening was between the Eagles and the Pirates. Moapa scored first with a 13 – 8 decision by Jake Repp at 112 pounds. The score was fairly close through the match but the Pirates surged ahead after a quick pin by Parker Chappell at 160 pounds. The Pirates were 27 and the Eagles had scored 18 points.
Boulder pulled ahead but was caught off guard when Brandon Reeves received six points after being illegally slammed and his Eagle opponent was disqualified. The score after 215 pounds was Moapa 33 and Boulder 30. The Pirates were unable to hang on and ended up losing to Boulder City by a score of 42 to 33.
The final match of the evening for the Pirates was against the Bulldogs of Virgin Valley. Braden Evans started the match off pinning his opponent at 119 pounds which put the Pirates up by six points. The Pirates never trailed and didn’t look back and at the end of the dual pummeled Virgin Valley with a score of 60 to 24.
The Pirates have one final dual against Coronado High School on Thursday in Las Vegas and then prepare to host the division tournament at Moapa Valley High School on the February 12.
