Recinos' fall lifts Carthage to dual win over rival Neosho

Jan. 19—CARTHAGE, Mo. — With bragging rights in the annual Black and Blue Brawl on the line, Carthage heavyweight David Recinos provided the final haymaker.

The Tigers led Neosho in the rivalry dual from start to finish, but it wasn't until the final match that Recinos' first-period fall over Tyce Hardin secured a 38-31 win for Carthage on Tuesday night at Carthage High School.

The dual win marked Carthage's first over Neosho since 2007.

"It's been 15 years — a long time," Carthage head coach Kenny Brown said. "Granted, Neosho was down a couple of their better kids. ... That definitely played a role in the dual, but I'll take it either way."

Carthage led the dual by as many as 13 points before Neosho stormed back to within one point heading into the final match at the 285-pound weight class, where Recinos got an early takedown before working a turn for a fall just one minute, 21 seconds into the bout.

"Recinos has been getting better," Brown said. "I knew we at least had a 50-50 shot in that one. Their starting heavyweight was out and this was their (junior varsity) heavyweight. They're both freshmen. But David has been wrestling well and we look for him to do more good things down the road."

Carthage and Neosho both picked up team points at seven weight classes. However, bonus points proved to be the difference as the Tigers claimed two more falls and one more major decision than the Wildcats.

"It's a tough one," Neosho head coach Jeremy Phillips said. "Carthage did a good job. They're well coached. My overall thought, though, is that they wanted it a little more than us. They came out and attacked well. We were on our heels. We wrestled some matches well, but we wrestled some matches the opposite."

It was an ideal start to the night for Carthage, which jumped out to a 16-3 lead through four weights after Bradyn Tate claimed a second-period fall over Johnny Chrisco at 126.

"We knew going in that we needed a pretty sizeable lead going into the upper weights," Brown said. "And honestly, it was just a fun dual. We've had some of those against Neosho where we've lost, but it's still a fun dual.

"You want to see that competitive fire out of the kids. It gets the fans loud and kids have fond memories for later on."

Neosho stopped the bleeding with back-to-back wins at 132 and 138. Hayden Crane earned a fall over Byron Lopez before Nate Copeland earned an 11-7 decision over Eli Sneed to trim the Tigers' lead to 16-12.

But the bonus points for Carthage started to roll in more from there.

Grey Petticrew extended the Tigers' lead back up to 10 points with a fall over Bostyn Patterson at 145. Then two matches after a 12-4 major decision by Davion King over Collyn Kivett at 160, CHS logged another fall with Brett Rockers pinning Gabe Mabery in the first period at 182.

Neosho managed to stay within striking distance in the dual with wins at 152, a 4-3 overtime decision by Trent Neece over Braxdon Tate, and 170, a 14-3 major decision by Eli Zar over Gabe Lambeth.

A first-period fall by Neosho's DeLeon Ulysses over Landyn Collins at 195 trimmed the Carthage lead to 32-25, and then a forfeit by the Tigers at 220 pulled Neosho to within 32-31 heading into the final bout.

Neosho had two usual starters out for the dual in returning state finalist Raymond Hembree (113) and Nico Olivares (285).

"I knew going in that it was going to be tough with the circumstances we were battling," Phillips said. "But that's no excuse. These days, everybody is battling the same kind of thing. It's an equal playing field, and they brought it to us and took it from us. We have to learn from it and use it as a learning opportunity."

Carthage received a forfeit at 106 before Dylan Huntely claimed a 12-4 major decision over Neosho's Fisher Butler at 113. Neosho got on the board with a 10-3 decision by Wyatt Black over Christian Brown at 120.

Carthage competes in the Platte County Invitational on Friday and Saturday. Neosho travels to Ozark for a dual on Thursday.

Contact Jared Porter on Twitter at @JaredRyanPorter.