Late lapses sink Rock Bridge twice

The Rock Bridge wrestlers did not have quite enough to win.

The Bruins competed in two close duals Tuesday night, losing to Warrenton 41-28 and then to Kirksville 38-31.

“Obviously, a loss is always hard for me to swallow, but it’s one of those things where I’m starting to learn that you have to look at the positive stuff from these losses,” coach John Kopnisky said. “There are guys that do perform really well. They step up to the task they needed to.”

Freshman 125-pounder Taylor Crane, coming off a first place finish at the Francis Howell North tournament, was pinned in the first period and hurt his shoulder. Crane had previously injured his shoulder at the Hickman tournament on January 22.

“His shoulder is just bothering him again,” Kopnisky said. “It’s nothing traumatic. It’s just a recurrence of (the injury at Hickman).”

After two more Rock Bridge losses, Charlie Lay (140 pounds), Brady Wilson (145), and Jake Hardesty (152) all came away with wins to give the Bruins a 24-20 lead.

The 160-pound match between Rock Bridge’s Matt McDonald and Warrenton’s Anthony Beard came down to the final seconds, where Beard was awarded an escape as time ran out to win the match 8-7.

“That’s a heartbreaker right there,” Kopnisky said. “It was a good call, and that’s just the way it works. It would have been nice to have them go to overtime, but that’s not the way it was called.”

At 171 pounds, Cam Purcell won a major decision to give Rock Bridge its biggest lead of the night, 28-23. That was the Bruins’ high point, though, as Warrenton won by fall in the next three matches, scoring 18 consecutive points to win 41-28.

Kopnisky gathered his wrestlers up after the match and left the floor.

“I let them sort it out,” Kopnisky said. “I told them what I saw, and I asked them to talk amongst themselves and figure out what they need to do.”

The second dual against Kirksville started after a 20-minute intermission, but the results seemed to be the same. After opening up leads of 9-0, 18-10, and 21-20, the Bruins fell behind and trailed 26-25 after Cam Purcell won a major decision against Kirksville’s Ben Bowen 12-3.

But Kirksville won the next two matches by fall, putting the dual out of reach.

“It was kind of déjà vu,” Kopnisky said. “It’s one of those things that can go either way. Aside from maybe two matches, we were really close in every match, both winning and losing. As far as doing what we needed to win, though, we were just not quite there.”

Rock Bridge will compete in a dual at Eureka on Thursday night at 6 p.m.