Pahranagat Valley had some holes in their wrestling roster last week in their opening match at Moapa. The Pirates won five matches by forfeit and four by fall to defeat the Panthers. Virgin Valley also participated.
Garrett German (120), William Uri (152), Hayden Redd (145) and Thomas Goddard (285) each won by fall for Moapa Valley.
Pahranagat Valley’s Garrett Bowen pinned Cinjim Freeman in 11 seconds at 160. Salvador Heredia (113), Reece Thornton (182) and Jon Stewart (195) also pinned their opponents in less than a minute for the Panthers. Heredia needed only 46 seconds to pin Jacob Leavitt, Thornton took only 19 seconds to pin Jackson Mills, and Jon Stewart pinned Ryan McMurray in 41 seconds.
PVHS did not have wrestlers in the 106, 126, 132, 138 and 170 weights, so Moapa was able to win the match by the score of 54 to 24.
“It’s right at the beginning of the season and with so few practices we kind of treated that whole day as like a scrimmage,” said coach Brad Loveday. “I told our 13 guys if they get wins we count them, if they don’t we don’t count them.”
On Saturday the Panthers participated in a dual tournament at Chaparral High in Las Vegas. PVHS topped Mohave 48-30 in the first round, and Palo Verde 42-36 in the second round.
That moved the Panthers into the Gold bracket semifinals of the tournament and up against Bishop Gorman. “We lost that match 60-6,” Loveday said. “Reece Thornton (182) was the only one of our wrestlers to win his match.”
In the third place match, Pahranagat lost to Pahrump 36-30. Thornton won again, and was the only Panther to win all four of his matches at Chaparral.
Loveday said Thane Solario wrestled well at 195 and Salvador Heredia did well at 120, both going 3-1, only losing in the Gorman match. “We had a bunch of fellas go 2-2 as well.”
This Saturday Pahranagat goes to a tournament at Parowan, Utah with Bryce Valley and Milford, Utah, plus Lincoln County. On Dec. 16-17 they participate in the Desert Storm Classic at Dixie High School in St. George.
