Mildly offensive

Otherwise, when the Indians won, they won big, claiming four pins and a technical fall along with one 9-2 decision. But had those close bouts gone differently, what ended up being a 44-21 Southwest Prairie Conference wrestling win for Minooka over Plainfield East could have been more closely contested.

That the Bengals were able to push the Indians as much as they did was no coincidence to Minooka head coach Jeff Charlebois.

"I'd say (we wrestled) a little flat," he said. "We held position pretty well, but we didn't fire offensively the way we need to. When shots are there, we need to do a better job of taking them."

The match opened at 106 pounds, and East grabbed an early 6-0 lead when Zach Krause pinned Dan Pearce in 1:20. From there, the Indians took command by reeling off six straight victories.

The most competitive of those bouts was easily the first, where 113-pounders Cody Hughes of East and Andrew Potts of Minooka went through regulation and three overtimes without either scoring a point. Potts got the 1-0 decision win when Hughes was unable to escape in the third overtime.

Minooka 120-pounder Shane Mart followed that by tying the dual at 6-6 with a 9-2 decision win over Matt Drew. The Indians then got pins from 126-pounder Bret Miller, in 1:29, 132-pounder Danny Ruettiger, in 3:37, and 138-pounder Mike McNulty, in 3:24. After Carson Oughton added a 15-0 technical fall at 145 pounds, the Indians led 29-6.

"I just tried to stay in a good position and keep myself ready to attack," Ruettger said of his win over Kevin Butthajit. "He made a mistake, and I was in position to counter it."

East finally ended its slide when 152-pounder D.J. Buenzing pinned Alex Lewar in 2:47. Jeff Klank answered for Minooka at 160 pounds, though it was not easy. He was clinging to a 3-2 lead when Dontrell Linnear got an escape with 19 seconds left in regulation to tie the bout. Klank managed a takedown 22 seconds into the first overtime for a 5-3 win.