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North Branch 38, Chisago Lakes 24

In the much-anticipated wrestling showdown between the Vikings and the Wildcats, Viking Justin Bergerson's 7-0 win over Wildcat Jake Nase at 215 pounds clinched the match for the Vikings. The Vikings went on to win 38-24 over the Wildcats in a front of a near-capacity crowd at Chisago Lakes High School last Friday, February 6.

The rivals treated the crowd to an excellent evening of wrestling. After the Vikings forfeited the 103-pound match to Wildcat Quade Zupko, Viking Jake Kostik pinned Wildcat Bobby Sontag late in the first period to tie the match at 6-6. In one of the most exciting matches of the evening, 119-pounders Pao Thao of Chisago Lakes and Patrick Mork of North Branch went on a scoring spree, ending up tied 16-16 after three periods. Early on, Thao took the lead and it looked like he was going to dominate. But then Mork tossed Thao a couple of times and gained some momentum, eventually building a 14-8 lead. But Thao got back into the match with an escape to cut Mork's lead to 14-11. With momentum now on his side, Thao kept scoring and eventually built a 16-14 lead. It looked like he was going to hang on for the win, but Mork got a reversal with less than 10 seconds left in the match to send it into sudden-death overtime. Thao scored a takedown in overtime to claim the 18-16 victory and put the Wildcats up 9-6.

At 125, Viking Jake Kalkbrenner beat Tyler McConville 7-1 to earn three points and re-tie the match. Pins by Vikings Tom Mork (130) over Tyler Heckel and Joe Blom (135) over Easton Gilman and a technical fall by the Vikings' 2008 state champion Boyd Suparat (140) over Ben Hinderman gave the Vikings a commanding 26-9 lead.

But the Wildcats weren't ready to give up just yet. Travis Kammerer's pin at 145 over Stuart Frink, the Wildcats' only pin of the evening, kept the Wildcats in the match. The Viking's Andy Freel got three of those points back with a tight 3-1 win over Wildcat Riley Myers at 152. "That win at 152 was pivotal for them," said Wildcat head coach Shawn Frederixon. "When Freel got the takedown to put himself up 3-1, that definitely hurt."

Three straight Wildcat wins cut the Viking lead to 29-24 and put them within striking distance -- Derek Silbernagel (160) over Nick Salo, Clay Olson (171) over Chad Anderson and Vince Virga (189), in sudden-death overtime, over Erik Chouinard. Virga and Chouinard were tied 3-3 at the end of regulation. In overtime, Chouinard was driving into Virga when Virga grabbed Chouinard and tossed him laterally to the mat. Virga was awarded 2 points for the takedown along with 2 points for a near fall to win the match 7-3.

Bergerson then sealed the deal with is win at 215. The Viking's John Morrison put an exclamation point on the evening with a pin over Wildcat Dylan Hoyt with just over 30 seconds remaining in the third period to make the final score North Branch 38, Chisago Lakes 24.

"What a fun dual!" said Aho. "Chisago Lakes is a well-coached, aggressive team that pushes the action for six minutes, so we knew we had to wrestle our best to be successful. Our guys wrestled very, very well tonight. Jake, Tom, Boyd, Justin and John have been winning on a consistent basis all year, but tonight we won because of some the less experienced guys on the team. Jake Kalkbrenner took care of a solid kid at 125, which was a pivotal match. Joe Blom got a huge pin for us at 135 and gave the rest of the guys on our team a lot of confidence. Andy Freel got a very hard-earned victory at 152 which pretty much sealed it for us. Although they lost to tough Chisago wrestlers, we were very proud of Patrick Mork, Nick Salo, Chad Anderson, and Erik Chouinard for not giving up and saving precious team points."

Frederixon also talked about the effect of extra team (bonus) points. "When the Vikings won three matches in a row, at 130, 135 and 140, they earned 17 points, including three extra points for each of the pins and two points for the near-fall. Later, when we won three matches in a row, at 160, 171 and 189, we earned just 9 points, since none of the victories carried bonus points. In fact, every North Branch kid wrestled smart and most of them didn't give up bonus points."

To sum it all up, Frederixon echoed Aho's opening comment, saying "It's always a fun one when we wrestle North Branch."

Individual Results

103 - Quade Zupko CL won by forfeit

112 - Jake Kostik NB fall over Bobby Sontag 1:22

119 - Pao Thao CL 18-16OT over Patrick Mork

125 - Jake Kalkbrenner NB 7-1 over Tyler McConville

130 - Tom Mork NB fall over Tyler Heckel 1:58

135 - Joe Blom NB fall over Easton Gilman 1:31

140 - Boyd Suparat NB tech fall over Ben Hinderman 15-0

145 - Travis Kammerer CL fall over Stuart Frink 1:50

152 - Andy Freel NB 3-1 over Riley Myers

160 - Derek Silbernagel CL 4-2 over Nick Salo

171 - Clay Olson CL 10-5 over Chad Anderson

189 - Vince Virga CL 7-3 OT over Erik Chouinard

215 - Justin Bergerson NB 7-0 over Jake Nase

285 - John Morrison NB fall over Dylan Hoyt 5:27

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