One More Stinking Second Needed!

                            One More Stinking Second Needed!

The Coon Rapids Cardinals were rated #11 by the Guillotine Wrestling newspapers preseason polls but the feeling is the Cards must not have seen that poll based on their recent weekend results. The Cards took care of business Friday night in their opening conference match with Andover by defeating them 66-9 and then traveled to Hastings to participate in an eight team tournament with some of the states elite programs.

The Cards defeated Prior Lake in the first round 38-23 with captain Luke Stoker highlighting the match by edging out the #5 rated wrestler by getting a take down late in the third period. In the second round the Cards dispatched Rosemount 52-15, the highlight of this match was a nice win by Brandon Peterson toughing out a very spirited match with his opponent.

In the third round the Cards knew they would have to work harder to beat the #3 rated team from Stoughton, Wisconsin. Coon Rapids held a 2-1 edge in previous meetings with the Wisconsin perennial power. The Cards once again came out on top defeating Stoughton 42-26. Highlighting this dual was Corey Vailliancourts varsity debut due to the injury of Darren Gagne(concussion). Corey was wrestling at 112lbs even though he weighed in at 103lbs. Corey was defeated, but demonstrated grit by refusing to go to his back even though he was under considerable duress. Captain Luke Stocker, moving up in weight to 119, sustained an elbow injury during the match but stuck it out and grinded out an 11-10 victory setting a great example for others to follow. There is no question why Luke stocker is one of our captains! James Magaard also made his varsity debut in this dual and came away with a fall making a statement that will be repeated many times in the future.

The Cards then advanced to the Championship round against Hastings, the states #2 rated team. The Cards wasted no time letting the crowd know the Cards were not going to be pushed around. Unrated Super Duper Cooper Anderson upset Bauer #9, in the opening match with a convincing 10-2 major decision. Captain Stocker, having a great day then came through with pin in what was a close match up to that point. Then the Cards stunned the Hastings faithful when Captain Dan Coughlin, Kahron Nix and Chad Mack all won by scoring three consecutive falls in :31, 2:56 and :46 seconds respectively. Captain Coughlin who had lost a very difficult match in the Stoughton dual, wasn’t about to lose again and wrestled with a lot of determination giving the Cards needed momentum. Hastings proved worthy of their #2 ranking and fought back to win 6 of the last 7 matches with Brand Halseth being the only win at 171lbs. The score was tied at 31 points each win the heavyweights stepped on the mat to decide the outcome between two proud programs. Tanner Lowe from Coon Rapids had a score to settle from a previous 10-6 match with PJ Mike #9 from Hastings. PJ Mike was protecting a 4-1 lead late in the third when Lowe scored a takedown with 11 seconds to go in match making the score 4-3 and with three second still left on the clock Lowe turned Mike to his back and the referee started counting back points and was on his second count when the clock expired- we needed one more stinking second!  The referee waved off the back points which gave Mike the win and Coon Rapids their first loss of the season. It was a great team effort and a very exciting match to see for the fans.

The Cards are away at Park Center on Friday night . This Saturday doesn’t get any easier for the Cards since they have invited #1 Ellsworth, Wisconsin, #3 Saint Michael, and #7 Cambridge to the Cardinal Duals (next year it will be called the Board Hyland Cardinal Duals) at CRHS. The JV starts at 9:00am and Varsity at 10am- come out and cheer on the Cards!