Valley’s Joseph Irons finishes Manchester’s Johnny England in their 182-pound match Thursday night in Akron. (Photos by James Costello)

AKRON — Tippecanoe Valley’s wrestlers came out on the wrong side of some close matches in their Three Rivers Conference meet with visiting Manchester Thursday night. If things had gone the other way, coach Kyler Kearby may have shuffled his lineup around, but as it was the Vikings surrendered a total of four forfeits — including a double forfeit at 126 — on the way to a 42-27 loss.

When it was all said and done, all Kearby could do was tip his hat to the Squires.

Seth Hoffman cradles Kevin Morales Thursday.

“We had some matches we could’ve won. If we win those matches, I’d have done some different things,” Kearby said. “Manchester earned it tonight. They came out, and they wanted to wrestle. We could’ve wrestled better.”

Valley actually led briefly, 27-24, before a first period pinfall loss at 220 and two straight forfeits brought the score to its final margin. The Vikings claimed wins by forfeit at 145 and 152, meanwhile, but they won only three live matches Thursday.

Their first win came at 132, where Seth Hoffman secured a pinfall of Kevin Morales just 48 seconds in. The Squires claimed a win by fall at 138 and decisions at 160 and 170 — the former a narrow 3-2 decision to Andrew Cagle over Chevy Teeter and the latter another competitive, 6-1 loss by Isaac Randall to Delton Moore — to claim a 24-18 advantage in the team scoring before Valley got its next win from Joseph Irons at 182 pounds.

Isaac Lowe stacks up Ashton Moore in 195-pound action.

With the match knotted at 2-all following Irons’ first-period takedown and Johnny England’s reversal, Irons started the second period down. England went for a cradle, and Irons reversed and quickly put him on his back for a 2:31 pinfall that knotted the two teams up at 24-24.

“The kid was trying to put Joseph in a cradle, and he saw an opening and capitalized on that, took him to his back. That was a good pin for him,” said Kearby.

Isaac Lowe’s dominant 9-2 decision over Ashton Moore at 195 put the home team out front briefly at 27-24, but Trey McNall’s pinfall over Donald Bradley at 220 and a pair of Valley forfeits at heavyweight and 106 brought the score to its final margin, dropping the Vikings to 4-8 overall and 2-3 in the TRC.

Valley now faces a long layover before resuming its schedule at the LaVille Super Duals Dec. 16 at 9 a.m.