MACON, Ga. — The championship dreams of Sonoraville and Gordon Lee remained alive at the Georgia state wrestling duals tournament Friday, but the hopes of a LaFayette repeat in Class AAA came to a sudden and surprising halt.
While Sonoraville was rolling to the Class AA finals with three impressive wins at the Macon Centreplex and Gordon Lee overcame a slow start in its Class A semifinal to get a title shot, LaFayette was the victim of an upset at the hands of West Forsyth, 31-22.
Sonoraville recorded the biggest win in school history with a 38-27 semifinal win over Henry County in a match not as close as the score indicated. The Phoenix, who earlier routed Banks County 69-11 and Cook County 66-9, led 38-15 before forfeiting the final two matches. Sonoraville will face nine-time champion and prohibitive tournament favorite Jefferson in tonight’s final at 7:30.
“We knew what we were getting into here,” Phoenix coach Eric Elrod said. “It was kind of a curse the past couple of years in that we couldn’t get past the semifinals. We finally did and now we get a shot at Jefferson, a goal we’ve had all season. It all culminated with the win over Henry. We got on top of them early and never backed off.
“We have to be crazy and stupid to beat Jefferson and we’re just ignorant enough to do it. Heck, it may not happen, but we’re going to give it a shot.”
Gordon Lee coach Steve McDaniel can empathize with Elrod. His Trojans also have had a tough time getting out of the semis in recent years. However, after downing Commerce 55-16 Friday night, the Trojans will get their shot in an area finals rematch against Bremen.
Trailing 16-3 after four bouts in the match that started at 152 pounds, Gordon Lee ripped off five consecutive pins beginning with 215-pound Caleb Guthrie, but it was a gutty 12-10 overtime decision by Jacob Bryson which had the veteran coach fired up.
“Caleb Guthrie is my hero right now,” McDaniel said. “He’s our 119-pounder and we wrested him at 125 and he fought his guts out. This weekend and all last week he wrestled great and I’m so proud of him. We knew coming out that we were going to get behind early because that’s out weakest part of the lineup. We knew once we turned the corner we were going to be all right. We started getting some results and it kind of snowballed.”
LaFayette was never able to get on a roll against a West Forsyth team which had to escape a late rally in the quarterfinals to get past West Laurens by two points. The match had only two pins, one by each team, but West Forsyth won four bouts by four points or less.
The Ramblers were handicapped in the match by the absence of 140-pounder Dalton Smith, who was injured in the 51-17 quarterfinal win over Jackson County. The possible nine-point swing he might have provided was costly. LaFayette still had a shot to pull off the rally after being down 25-13 but fell short. Seth Taylor recorded a 5-1 decison at 140, but Cory Muncill rallied to pin freshman Brady Hart at 145 to seal the win.
Two other teams had notable efforts that fell came up short. Heritage lost its opener, 37-27 to Eastside in Class AAA, while Dade County won its first-ever state match, 43-26 over Dublin, before falling to Lovett, 37-34, in a match that came down to the last bout.
Josh Gilbert could have won the match for Dade with a pin at 145. He had his opponent on his back ending the second period but could not get the pin, though he won the match 11-10.