Sophomores Isaac Gurley and Caden Jacobs stood out last night in the first wrestling dual of the season. The Rangers battled it out against Fruitport and Mona Shores, coming out on top over Mona Shores 48-21 and narrowly falling to Fruitport 35-34.

The night started off nicely for Caden with a win against an opponent from Fruitport that had placed in the State Tournament last season.

“[The match] was hard-fought, but it was worth it in the end,” Caden said. “I was trying to show up for our team; unfortunately, our guys couldn’t pull through at the end, and a couple of things just slipped away.”

The rest of the team that won against Fruitport included senior John Samsell, Isaac, and sophomore Robby Fraizer.

Isaac had a phenomenal match against his opponent, as he came out on top after pinning the Fruitport wrestler. Isaac has led the team in pins in the past, so this was normal for him.

“I had a pretty good first match,” Isaac said. “I couldn’t wrestle my second match, but in the first one, it felt really good to be back out there in a dual format.”

The matches against Fruitport lacked what was needed to win. The Rangers were up throughout most of the night but soon gave up their lead in the end. The loss was caused by Rangers being pinned by Trojans in the second half of Central’s lineup.

“We had a great dual against Fruitport,” head coach Brad Anderson said. “The first half of our guys wrestled hard. They hustled, they fought for points, they were in the other guy’s face, and they fought the way that Forest Hills Central Rangers should.”

Later on in the night, the Rangers faced off against Mona Shores. Yet again, Caden Jacobs was a key to the Ranger win. Mona Shores also didn’t have the numbers that FHC did; they had a smaller team and had to forfeit matches to FHC.

In Caden’s match, he pinned his opponent 9 seconds into the match and put up major points for the Rangers.

“[My opponent] is a good wrestler,” Caden said. “He deserved a better match than that. I would do it again, and [the match being so short] wouldn’t have happened, but I’ll take what I can get. [The opportunity] presented itself, and I just took it.”

Despite the loss against Fruitport, Coach Anderson is pleased with the win against Mona Shores. The boys still have a lot to work on before they compete in their next dual at Portage Central on Dec. 28. 

“We won some matches, and we lost some,” Anderson said. “The guys that they did have were tough, [but] our guys responded well. We’ve got good guys on the team that care; we’ll figure it out, but we’ve got to be better.”