First-year Dowagiac wrestling coach Matt Alward achieved his initial Wolverine Conference victory by beating visiting Paw Paw 42-39 Wednesday night, before posting a 42-24  triumph over Galesburg-Augusta.

Paw Paw narrowly beat Berrien Springs 36-30 as freshman Jared Williams  pinned Shamrock Bryce Albers at 103-pounds to end the evening.

Williams defeated fellow frosh Ray Vega of Dowagiac 5-3 and then five consecutive forfeits took place.

“We didn’t match up well with Dowagiac, because of all the voids and we bumped our guy to avoid wrestling Ben Luth, who I believe is Dowagiac’s best wrestler, but it still  didn’t work out at 140,” stated Paw Paw coach Scott Szekely. “Voids are killing us against good teams, but we have five seniors in the heavier weight classes to carry us. We beat Berrien Springs pretty good earlier in the season, but it was close tonight.”

The 140-pound match for Dowagiac was sophomore Kyle Gilson, who wrestled 10 pounds over his normal weight and put the Redskins’ grappler to his shoulders for the deciding six points for the Chieftains. Only one other match took place as freshman Carl Grant also pinned his Paw Paw opponent.

“Kyle (Gilson) wrestled two outstanding matches against heavier opponents, but we only wrestled seven matches tonight against two teams because of all the voids between us and them,” Alward said. “We won five of them so I am happy with that percentage.”

Achieving pins for the Chieftains against Galesburg were junior Ryan Smit (130), Luth and Gilson with sophomore Tim Keene finding his back to the mat at 155 against freshman Eric  Andrews.

“We have three seniors (Rick Roach will miss the season with a broken shoulder suffered on the gridiron), who are good leaders for such a young team, both on and off the mat,” Alward said. “We are making improvement at every practice, especially the younger kids as each week we stress basics and they are learning at a good pace.”

Paw Paw…39

Dowagiac…42

103: Jared Williams (PP) d. Ray Vega, 5-3

112: Mik Flory (PP) wins by forfeit

119: Tyler Wessendorf (D) wins by forfeit

125: Tyler Cross (D) wins by forfeit

130: Ryan Smith (D) wins by forfeit

135: Ben Luth (D) wins by forfeit

140: Kyle Gilson (D) p. Cody Small, 3:50

145: Shane Chapman (PP) wins by forfeit

152: Kevin Sundberg (PP) wins by forfeit

160: Koty Combs (PP) wins by forfeit

171: David Budner (PP) wins by forfeit

189: Carl Grant (D) p. Nik Olinger, 1:57

215: Anthony Nelson (D) wins by forfeit

285: Barton Armber (PP) wins by forfeit

Galesburg-Augusta…24

Dowagiac…46

103: Sam Matties (GA) wins by forfeit

112: Tyler Wessendorf (D) wins by forfeit

119: Michael Underwood (D) wins by forfeit

125: Tyler Cross (D) wins by forfeit

130: Ryan Smit (D) p. Jacob Mathers, 2:30

135: Ben Luth (D) p. Mark Pufpaff, :21

140: Kyle Gilson (D) p. Travis Hartman, 1:31

145: Double void

152: Eric Andrews (GA) p. Tim Keene, 1:55

160: Philip Pate (GA) wins by forfeit

171: Jeremy Nelson (GA) wins by forfeit

189: Carl Grant (D) wins by forfeit

215: Anthony Nelson (D) wins by forfeit

285: Double void