Round One to the Lights

Steeler French knew exactly what he had to do when he stepped on the mat for his 184-pound match against the University of Providence's Tyler Webley. He had to do exactly what his head coach has been asking the Montana State University-Northern Lights to do all season long - he had to dominate.

With the annual dual between the Lights and Argos hanging in the balance, French, a native of Choteau, did exactly that. He went out and scored a 9-2 win over Webley, a win that helped propel the third-ranked Lights to a 21-18 win over the fourth-ranked Argos Wednesday night inside the Armory Gymnasium.

Heading into the 184-pound bout French's Lights were clinging to a 15-12 lead, and at that point, things could have gone either way. But, French, who has grown up inside the heated rivalry between Northern and UP, came out aggressive and hungry. He led 2-0 after the first period, then upped his lead to 4-1 in the second. Not satisfied, French dominated the final two minutes with a flurry of take downs.

"I knew I had to wrestle my match," French, who is ranked 12th in the NAIA, said. "I had to go out and try to dominate. That's what coach has been preaching to us. And that's what I tried to do. I had to go and try and get as many points as I could."

In a dual where points were close throughout, French's three points made a world of difference for the Lights.

"Last weekend was a big confidence booster for Steeler," Northern head coach Tyson Thivierge said of French, who won the Trapper Open last Saturday. "He's just progressed so much since the first dual of the year, and he's wrestling with a lot of confidence right now. And we have confidence in him. Tonight, he was aggressive, he controlled the pace, and in all honesty, he probably saved this dual for us."

No doubt French's win was a huge one for the Lights, and what followed was a win by Isaac Bartel at 197 pounds, which locked up the win for Northern. Bartel's 4-2 decision over 8th-ranked John Hensley put the Lights ahead 21-12, and Northern forfeited the heavyweight match to Matt Hopkins, as Jase Stokes was questionable with an injury.

But while French and Bartel put the dual to bed, Wednesday night was anything but easy for the Lights. Northern started strong with a stellar 6-0 win by Nick Kunz at 125 pounds. Providence then forfeited the 133-pound match, so the Lights were out to a quick lead.

MSU-N figured to build on that lead with top-ranked Matt Weber up at a 141 pounds, and while Weber did come away with a 9-7 decision over T.J. Baun, that match was a clear indication of just how tough the night was going to be.

After a scoreless first period, there were fireworks in the second as Weber went ahead 3-0, but eventually found himself on his back and nearly being pinned by the UP freshman. Weber fought right back however, got a reversal and a near fall of his own, and wound up leading 8-7 at the end of a wild second period. He would go on to win 9-7, but the Argos came right back with a pin from sixth-ranked Shonn Roberts at 149 pounds, and all of sudden, Northern's 12-0 lead was cut in half.

"This dual, it's just not going to be a blowout." Thivierge said. "I've said it many times, this dual brings the best out in both teams. And you saw that tonight. There was some matches we expected to dominate and get bonus points in, and there were matches we thought we'd win that we didn't. They (Argos) wrestled really well tonight, and I thought it was a solid dual for us. I think the big thing is, we just have such high expectations, and we should, so maybe we didn't wrestle to those expectations tonight, but, I still think we wrestled well, and we're always going to be happy when we win this dual."

No doubt, the Lights were excited after Wednesday night's win, particularly because the visiting Argos made things very interesting.

After Roberts' pin at 149 pounds, two of the best wrestlers in the country went head-to-head in Northern's Brandon Weber, ranked second, and UP's Casey Dobson, ranked third. The two have had a heated rivalry the last couple of seasons, and on Wednesday night, Dobson edged Weber 4-1, which closed Northern's lead to 12-9. Top-ranked Andrew Bartel answered with an impressive 8-3 win over Jaren Komac at 165 pounds, but, the dual was still very much in doubt after UP's Adrien Lyons-Lopez nipped Northern's Chris Nile 5-2 at 174. The match was yet another meeting of two of the NAIA's best with Lyons-Lopez ranked second and Nile third, and the victory pulled Providence to within three points at 15-12.

That however, was as close to the Lights as the Argos would get, thanks to French, who said, even under pressure, wrestling the Argos is nothing but fun.

"So many guys in this dual are from Montana," he said. "We all have been wrestling each other and together for eight years or more. We all know each other, and we're pretty good friends. So that makes it a lot of fun."

Fun, intense, exciting, dramatic, those are all words to describe the Northern/Providence rivalry, which will commence again in February when the Lights travel to Great Falls for the rematch. And the first salvo between the Lights and Argos this season had all of those things in it. It definitely lived up to the hype.

"It's two top-five teams going at it," Thivierge said. "So you wouldn't expect anything less. It was a fun dual, it was exciting. Now, we'll go back to the drawing board and keep working to improve."

The Lights are back on the road this weekend, with the Cardinal Duals Saturday and the Spokane Open Sunday.

Lights 21, Argos 18

125 - Nick Kunz, MSU-N dec. Michael Lefuel, UP, 6-0; 133 - Landon Bailey, MSU-N won by FFT; 141 - Matt Weber, MSU-N dec. TJ Baun, UP, 9-7; 149 - Shonn Roberts, UP pinned Tony Evans, MSU-N, 1:59; 157 - Casey Dobson, UP dec. Brandon Weber, MSU-N, 4-1; 165 - Andrew Bartel, MSU-N dec. Jaren Komac, 8-3; 174 - Adrien Lyons-Lopez, UP dec. Chris Nile, MSU-N, 5-2; 184 - Steeler French, MSU-N dec. Tyler Webley, UP, 9-2; 197 - Isaac Bartel, MSU-N dec. John Hensley, UP, 4-2; HWT - Matt Hopkins, UP won by FFT.