Warsaw’s Christian Taylor and Goshen’s Christian Horton mix it up in the 138-pound bout Thursday night. (Photos by Mike Deak)

WARSAW – Goshen claimed the first four, and then four of the final five bouts Thursday night on the mats, taking care of a pesky Warsaw squad, 48-28, in Northern Lakes Conference wrestling in the Tiger Den.

The RedHawks used six pins and two forfeits to build up its point total. A forfeit along with three straight pints by Braxton Rodriguez, Enrique Flores and Hector Flores put Goshen up 24-0 quick. All three of the pins were in 66 seconds or less.

Warsaw’s Kyle Hatch pulls in Goshen’s Noah Shively en route to a pin at 145.

Warsaw would fight back in emphatic fashion, taking the next five matchups to grab a 25-24 lead. The run began with Kameron Hile commanded the 132 match with Noah Cauette. A reversal by Hile in the second period broke open the two, sending Hile to an 11-3 major decision.

Christian Taylor at 138 had his hands full with Christian Horton, Taylor doing enough to hold on for an 8-7 decision. A takedown in each period plus a pair of escapes helped Taylor rally from a 5-3 deficit in the first period.

Warsaw rattled off three straight pins from that point, beginning with Kyle Hatch moving up to 145 and having no trouble with Noah Shively. Hatch whipped out to four quick takedowns, deciding to find the next opening and putting Shively out at 1:41.

Francisco Ramirez needed three periods, but scored a pin at 4:35 when he finished off Rene Guiterrez. Ramirez, after a slow start, had a huge second period scoring a pair of takedowns and a near fall, only to get Guiterrez on his back for good 35 seconds into the final stanza.

Brady Stout at 160 would push Warsaw up on the scoreboard when he got the mat slap on Daniel Hidalgo 47 seconds into the second period.

Warsaw’s Luis Juarez tries to elevate Goshen’s Julio Navarro.

“We knew we matched up well in the middle weights, but knew we had a lot of freshmen and inexperience in the lightweights,” began Warsaw head coach Justin Smith. “We were trying to match it up to maybe get one win out of the early matches and then see what happens. But I am really happy with our middle weights. Overall, not a bad night. Plenty to be gained.”

Goshen, however, had some of its better grapplers coming up and it showed. The Navarro brothers – Miguel and Julio – each scored pins in successive fashion and a forfeit put Goshen out of reach for the team win.

A showdown at 220 had a pair of the top area wrestlers in the class square off in Goshen’s Derek Paz and Andrew Brock. Paz, who finished second at the Al Smith Invite to the defending state champ in Kobe Woods of Penn, showed he is still the top dog in the NLC by taking a 4-1 lead on Brock before closing out the pin right before the period ended.

“In a match like that, when you are wrestling an opponent like Derek, you have to eliminate mistakes and wrestle cleaner,” Smith said. “Andrew made the one mistake and paid for it. We talked about it afterwards, and he knows what he did. I would like to see these two wrestle again at NLC. Andrew has more in his arsenal than what he showed tonight, it was just the one mistake.”

Warsaw would end on a better note, with Alec Haines taking a 6-1 decision on Jose Montanez. Haines almost scored a pin in the first period, and had Montanez on the ropes in the third period, settling for the three points to close out the night.

Goshen rolled in the JV matches, getting pins from Jose Romo, Skylar Rodriguez, Nate Ganger and Eric Smith over Victor Mejia, Danny Zamara, Andrew Owens and Grayson Drudge. Adam Camarillo scored a decision Max Bradley.

Warsaw will get back at it Saturday at the Garrett Invite and close out the NLC dual season versus Concord at home next Wednesday. The NLC Championships are set for Jan. 23 at Elkhart Memorial.

Brady Stout of Warsaw looks to the official during his matchup with Daniel Hidalgo.