Momentum captures Cup

COEUR d’ALENE — To the naked eye, that early 9-0 lead that Lake City built could be chalked up to snagging the momentum in the 25th annual TerHark Cup dual against Coeur d’Alene.

But the Vikings had other ideas.

Coeur d’Alene’s Dom Jessos pinned Ean Amick at 120-pounds, followed by a Nick Lara decision at 126 and Hunter Schueller pin at 132, and the Vikings never trailed again, beating the Timberwolves 55-18 in the dual at Viking Court on Wednesday.

“We started at a good weight,” Coeur d’Alene coach Jeff Moffat said. “Starting at 106, it’s right in the meat of our lineup. Even though Kyle (Bridge) got beat (by a 5-4 decision at the hands of Blaine Leonard), I thought he wrestled really well. You expect guys like Dom and Hunter that are seniors to wrestle well. Nick, thought he wrestled a little tight, gutted out a win. We juggled our lineup, and Mason got the win. Nolan did a good job gutting one out. Hats off to Demarco Piazza — who didn’t even know if he was going to wrestle or not — and he goes out and gets a pin.”

For Coeur d’Alene, it was its 18th straight win in the series, which dates back to 1996. Lake City won six of seven, with the lone setback in 2000. Coeur d’Alene has won each year since 2002.

“We don’t talk about it in practice because we don’t want to put extra pressure on the kids,” Moffat said. “We’re not going to tell them to get after people, because we don’t, but don’t want to put any extra pressure on them. Sooner or later, we’re going to get beat. That’s as good of a wrestling team at Lake City we’ve faced.”

Caden Hess’ pin at 113 pounds gave Lake City a 9-0 lead.

“Blaine got us started really well at 106,” Lake City coach Corey Owen said. “That’s a good kid he wrestled and beat there. It was a close match, and knew it would be. Hess does what Hess does. It wasn’t a lack of effort. We just ran into a really good wrestling team tonight. We didn’t wrestle very well. We wrestled hard, but we didn’t wrestle very well. That was our message is that we’ve got a month until the state wrestling tournament, and technically, we’ve got to make a lot of changes. Jeff has a great program, and they’re well coached, and they just outwrestled us tonight. Hopefully we can close the distance in the next month.”

In last year’s state 5A tournament, Coeur d’Alene was runner-up and Lake City was fourth. Post Falls won the team title in Pocatello.

“All week, they thought they were going to win and we thought we were going to win,” Moffat said. “It was really a toss up who was going to win this match. What I really liked was that guys were aggressive and getting after it. I asked them to step up their game, be aggressive and they did that. If you’re aggressive and it doesn’t work out, you can’t fault yourself, but at least you tried. That’s a good dual wrestling team that Lake City has. We won some of the upper weights that we were probably the underdog in. Most definitely at 195 against a kid that was third in the state. But that’s wrestling, and could have happened to us just as easily.”

Schueller’s pin of Kenzie Lindsey in 1:37 was one of seven Viking pins on the night.

“Guys like Nick and Dom, they really started it off for us,” Schueller said. “Even Kyle Bridge, he wrestled a close match. We knew we had to step up as a team and had guys step up. It’s a super fun team, and one of the best teams I’ve been on. We’ve got potential to do really well at the state level. We’ve been working hard in the wrestling room, and hoping to continue to do well.”

Both teams will compete in the North Idaho Rumble starting on Friday at 3 p.m. at Coeur d’Alene High. Championship finals are scheduled for Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

106 — Blaine Leonard, LC, d. Kyle Bridge, 5-3. 113 — Caden Hess, LC, p. Aiden Rodebaugh, :26. 120 — Dom Jessos, Cd’A, p. Ean Amick, 1:21. 126 — Nick Lara, Cd’A, d. Nate Garner, 6-2. 132 — Hunter Schueller, Cd’A, p. Kenzie Lindsey, 1:37. 138 — Mason Keough, Cd’A, p. Ayden Johnson, 2:44. 145 — Drew Roberts, Cd’A, p. Chase Richardson, 2:46. 152 — Nolan Randles, Cd’A, d. Porter Howard, 9-5. 160 — Demarco Piazza, Cd’A, p. Gavin Tuttle, 1:50. 170 — Gunner Giulio, Cd’A, md. Seth Nutting, 10-1. 182 — Matthew Whitcomb, LC, p. Andrew Stockham, 1:06. 195 — Filip Mjertan, Cd’A, p. Mahlon Clark, 1:06. 220 — Connor Dremann, LC, d. Jaxon Washington, 7-1. 285 — Jackson Kohal, Cd’A, d. Owen Hughes, 3-0. 98 — Christian Paniagua, Cd’A, p. Zach Macdonald, 1:26.