Lights slam Raiders in home debut

The Southern Oregon Raiders have been a thorn in the side of the Montana State University-Northern wrestling team in recent years. And, they've been one of the best in the NAIA.

But on Thursday night, inside the Armory Gymnasium, the fifth-ranked Lights, with an impressive youth movement, turned the tables on the 14th-ranked Raiders, with a dominating 31-11 victory.

"I was really pleased with the way we wrestled," said MSU-N head coach Tyson Thivierge. I thought we were much, much better tonight, than we were last Saturday (North Idaho. It was a lot of fun to watch."

Making their home debut, the Lights didn't disappoint, and they finished off the dual with three big wins from their veterans.

At 174 pounds, fourth-ranked senior Willie Miller was a technical machine as he took apart SOU's Reed Tennyson in what eventually became an 18-1 technical fall, and was one of five bonus-point wins for the Lights on the night.

Southern Oregon star Ryan McWatters then tech. falled MSU-N's Dace Fisher at 184 pounds, keeping SOU mathematically in the match.

But, Northern's two biggest standouts finished off the dual. Top-ranked Garrett DeMers did find himself in a battle with un-ranked Tanner Fischer at 197 pounds, but, with a quick takedown in the first few seconds of overtime, DeMers escaped with an 8-6 win. There was then no such drama in the heavyweight finale, as second-ranked Toby Cheff needed just :56 to pin SOU's Zane Wardwell.

However, as good as Northern's veterans were at finishing the dual, it was MSU-N's freshmen class that had Thivierge smiling at the end of the night. He sent out five true freshmen in the dual, and all but one got a win.

It started with Quintel Fuchs, who has earned Northern's varsity spot at 125 pounds. He was spectacular with his takedowns in a 9-1 major decision. Then came Blake Ivie, who was just as good at getting on top, and he worked his way to a 15-3 major that gave Northern a quick 8-0 lead. And the freshmen kept going. At 141 pounds, Matt Weber was locked in a battle in the second period when a sweet move got SOU's Trevor Hancock on his back, and there was no getting up as Weber earned the pin in 4:52, giving the Lights a commanding 14-0 lead.

At 149, freshman Drake Randall also fought hard and wrestled well, before losing to second-ranked Tyler Cowger in a close decision, but, at 165 pounds, another frosh, Austin Blaede came right back and broke a late 6-6 tie with an escape to beat SOU's Chris Marino 8-6. In between, junior Tommy Cooper lost a heart-breaker at 157 pounds, a 3-2 decision to Kyle Sether. Cooper had two shots at the end of the match, but neither resulted in the winning takedown.

Still, it was an incredible roll early for a Northern team known for its dominance in the upper weights.

"Three true freshman come out and get us bonus points to start the dual," Thivierge said. "That's incredible. "In the first six matches, we had five true freshmen out there, and only lost one of those matches, and Drake (Randall) wrestled really tough against the No. 2 guy in the country. So, what those kids did tonight, that was a lot of fun to watch."

And it was fun to see Northern dominate in its only home dual of 2015. The Lights won't be back in the Armory until February when they have three duals in a six-day span. But, heading back on the road, Thivierge liked the momentum his team built up against the Raiders on Thursday night.

"They're really buying in," Thivierge said. "They are taking the fight to their opponents like we want. I was really happy to see how aggressive we were tonight, in pretty much every match. It's good to see them applying what they've already learned this season. And I'm really happy with the way we wrestled tonight."

Northern will head to North Idaho Saturday for the Cardinal Duals, where they'll wrestle Highline Community College and Simon Fraser University. The Lights' busy week concludes with the Spokane Open Sunday in Spokane.

Lights 31, Southern Oregon 11

125 – Quintel Fuchs, MSU-N maj. dec. Casey Coulter, SOU, 9-1; 133 – Blake Ivie, MSU-N maj. dec. Matt Peterson, SOU, 15-3; 141 – Matt Weber, MSU-N pinned Trevor Hancock, SOU, 4:52; 149 – Tyler Cowger, SOU dec. Drake Randall, MSU-N, 7-4; 157 – Kyle Sether, SOU dec. Tommy Cooper, MSU-N, 3-2; 165 – Austin Blaede, MSU-N dec. Chris Marino, SOU, 8-6; 174 – Willie Miller, MSU-N tech. fall Reed Tennyson, SOU, 18-1, 5:22; 184 – Ryan McWatters, SOU tech. fall Dace Fisher, MSU-N, 18-3, 4:42; 197 – Garrett DeMers, MSU-N dec. Tanner Fischer, SOU, 8-6, SVO; HWT – Toby Cheff, MSU-N pinned Zane Wardwell, SOU, :56.