Staff Photo by Laura-Chase McGehee/Chattanooga Times Free Press/
Referee Ted Stratton, right, officiates a match between Logan Perkins of Heritage High School, left, and Blake Jackson of Bradley Central High School in the 145 pound weight class at Heritage High School on Tuesday night. Perkins won.RINGGOLD, Ga. – School was technically still out for the holidays Tuesday in Catoosa County, but there was plenty of teaching going on during and after Heritage High’s wrestling match against Tennessee power Bradley Central.
The visiting Bears escaped with a 37-27 win – winning the final three individual bouts after falling behind – but Bradley coach Steve Logsdon saw a few areas of improvement his 13-0 team will need before the postseason.
“If there’s a lesson to be learned, it’s that down the line against good teams you can’t give up huge bonus points,” Logsdon said. “We lost four matches plus a forfeit, and yet in four of those we lost bonus points. In tough times we’ve got to win close matches and not give up bonus points. Hopefully we learned our lesson from that.
“I don’t want to take anything away from Heritage. Those guys fought us tough and gave us everything we wanted, but if we just stay off our backs, we would have been comfortable.”
Heritage (27-5) got pins at 112 pounds from Justin Heard, 130 from Cody Goins and 145 from Logan Perkins, each in the final minute. The night’s best bout was at 152 when defending Georgia individual champion Cory Canada edged Bradley Colbaugh in the third overtime period on an escape, pulling the Generals within 22-21.
BRADLEY CENTRAL 37, HERITAGE 27(Meet started at 103 pounds)103-Dakota Reams (BC) major dec. Tyler Hill, 9-0; 112–Justin Heard (H) pinned Jacob Climer, 5:17; 119-Aaron Hutson (BC) tech. fall Madison Martin, 16-1; 125–Ethan Hames (BC) pinned Landon Reed, 0:32; 130-Cody Goins (H) pinned Jericho Crutcher, 5:01; 135-Tyler Schuch (BC) major dec. Michael Shepard, 12-2; 140-Tyler Pitts (BC) dec. Jarrod Holmes, 4-1; 145-Logan Perkins (H) pinned Blake Jackson, 5:54; 152-Cory Canada (H) dec. Bradley Colbaugh, 5-4, OT; 160–Jacob Bailey (BC) dec. James Voorhees, 8-3; 171-Andy Bratton (H) won by forfeit; 189-Devin McCulley (BC) dec. Michael Moore, 10-3; 215-Tucker Bolton (BC) pinned Gabe Pendley, 3:23; 285–Patrick Benson (BC) dec. Dylan Lowe, 6-1.Records: Bradley Central 13-0; Heritage 27-5.
Heritage took a 27-25 lead after receiving a forfeit at 171, but Bradley got a 10-3 win from Devin McCulley, a second-period pin from Tucker Bolton and a 6-1 win from heavyweight Patrick Benson to seal the team victory. Among the other Bradley wins was a technical fall at 119 by Aaron Hudson and a 32-second pin by Ethan Hames at 125.
Heritage coach Kenny Hill, like his counterpart, hopes his team will benefit from the tough match.
“You never want to lose, but when you’re wrestling someone the caliber of Bradley, you know they’re going to get after you,” said Hill, whose team will compete in the Area 7-AAA tournament this weekend at Gilmer County. “That’s something we’ve seen a little bit, but not from an entire team, so it’s good for our kids. It’s nice to get humbled a little bit. We’ll go back to work the next couple of days and hopefully fix a few things.”