Triton’s Nick Harker gets the mat slap to pin Tippecanoe Valley’s Dylan Warner Tuesday night. (Photos by Mike Deak)

BOURBON – Two sides of the story for two sides of the mat Tuesday night at Triton. The Trojans looked mighty impressive in its home wrestling opener while Tippecanoe Valley took a few moral victories in a 66-17 result in favor of the home side at the Trench.

Jameson Baker of Tippecanoe Valley controls Billy Smith of Triton.

The outcome of the match wasn’t going to much of a factor as Triton knew ahead of time it would have 30 points in forfeits from five vacant Valley weight classes. How the other nine weight classes would shape up molded the moods of both clubs.

Valley started off hot right away as 220-pounder Jameson Baker continued to impress in the early going with a pin of Billy Smith at 3:38. Triton returned the favor with pins in its next two matchups with Ryan Horne at 285 and Bryce Swihart at 113 both scoring pins in the first periods of their matches against Cody Craig and Mariah Owens. Swihart got his in just 18 seconds and Horne in 1:19.

Triton won four of the last five matches by pin fall. Bo Snyder led 12-3 on Jared Mikel before getting the pin at 4:33 at 145 and Vincent Helton took the next matchup at 152 in a 2:22 pin of Isaac Randall.

Nick Harker was mighty impressive in a 39-second mat slap of Dylan Warner in the 160-pound class and John Salinas needed just 32 seconds to take care of Alvaro Gutierrez in the 182-pound card.

Bryce Swihart takes down Mariah Owens

“I was pretty pleased with how we wrestled,” said Triton coach Ron Brown. “Pretty impressed how a small 1-A school has put some stuff together. We are really trying to put some momentum together going into the state tournament. I expected this, our kids wrestle like this in the room and just brought it out here. Our execution was what we wanted to pull off. Really pleased with what we saw tonight.”

Valley got a pin from Chevy Teeter over Riley Chickering in the 132-pound matchup. Teeter led 4-1 before turning over Chickering at 1:47.

Josh Back ended the night in triumph for the Vikings with a dominant 18-1 tech fall over Cameron Scarberry. Back, now 4-1 on the season, scored four three-point near falls on Scarberry and almost had him pinned in the first period, then bulldozed quickly in the second period for the stoppage.

“Josh, as a senior, it’s expected,” started Valley coach Kyler Kearby. “He’s been through this before and knows what to do. Jameson didn’t wrestle last year so we didn’t know what to expect. Turns out he’s a pretty good wrestler, one of the best on this team. As far as the rest of this team, we can only get better. We’ll keep working.”

Triton sits at 4-2 on the season with its next match set for Thursday, Dec. 3, at home against Caston. Valley falls to 0-5 and will host Wabash next Tuesday.

Chevy Teeter of Tippecanoe Valley locks up Triton’s Riley Chickering.