FORT BRAGG — Taking to the mats with eight wrestlers, the Lower Lake Trojans beat Point Arena 48-12 and lost to Fort Bragg 48-28 in a Coastal Mountain Conference tri-team meet on Wednesday in Fort Bragg.
“We have 12 guys left on the team and these guys are fighters,” said Lower Lake coach Ed Fuchs, who added that he was proud of the way the Trojans wrestled in their final meet of the season.
“We wrestled very well,” Fuchs said.
There were only two contested matches in the Trojans” win over Point Arena. Lower Lake forfeited at 145 and 152 pounds while picking up forfeit wins at 119, 135, 161, 189, 215 and 285 pounds.
Johnny Radford gave Lower Lake a win by first-round pin at 112 pounds and teammate David Jordan needed just 87 seconds to pin his opponent at 160 pounds.
There were eight contested matches in Lower Lake”s loss to Fort Bragg and the Trojans won five of them.
Radford again won by first-round pin at 112 pounds and Brandon Painchaud scored a 16-3 major decision at 119 pounds.
“We were hoping to get a pin there but their kid kept fighting from his back,” Fuchs said.
Jordan scored a 40-second pin at 160 pounds and Kenneth Cates pinned his opponent late in the first round at 189 pounds.
The Trojans” final win was courtesy of Justin Harrison”s pin in 1:07 of the first round at 215 pounds. It was his 75th career pin, an ongoing school record.
Thomas Cross lost by pin to his Fort Bragg opponent at 130 pounds. In the heavyweight division, Fort Bragg standout Matthew Rashad beat Lower Lake”s Michael Payne, who was wrestling up a weight class.
“He didn”t back down,” Fuchs said of Payne. “This is experience for him and he gave it his best try.”
Both Painchaud (119) and Harrison (215) closed out the CMC dual meet season at 7-0.
Lower Lake returns to action Feb. 20 when it hosts the CMC Championships.
