“They came out and punched us in the face, and we didn’t respond,” Laflin said after his second-seeded Indians fell 39-29. “I have known Fred a long time, and I knew they would be strong and that they would come to fight. We didn’t rise up and face the challenge.”
Fairfield advanced to the second round with a 77-0 win over Little Miami, while Springboro dispatched Hamilton 62-17. The Panthers travel to Mason next Wednesday for the regional semifinals and finals with a trip to St. John Arena and the state tournament on the line.
Springboro held an 8-5 edge in matches, but got the big bonus points with five pins while yielding bonus points in the form of two major decisions and two pins.
“That’s always the game plan,” Boulton said. “Especially in dual meets. We want to pin every match. I thought we missed two tonight, but we picked up a couple we were not expecting.”
While the score was close, how the final tally came to be was a little surprising to both coaches.
Boulton had the pins switched around in a couple of places and Laflin was looking for wins at 113 and 120.
“Those were winnable matches, and we found a way to lose both of them,” Laflin said. “We know they have awesome kids in the middle. We couldn’t get pinned and we had to win down low, and we just didn’t respond.”
Freshman Zach Supp responded for the Indians, starting the dual with an 8-3 win at 106, but Springboro’s Scott Osborne recorded a reversal and two back points in the final 15 ticks at 113 to turn a 6-4 deficit into an 8-6 win. Ryan Boulton gave Springboro a 6-3 lead with a 2-0 win over Hunter Jones on a takedown late in the third period.
Austin Sper (126) and Sam Meddings (132) recorded back-to-back pins for Fairfield to give the hosts a 15-6 lead, but Springboro ran off the next five matches, getting pins in all five to take a 33-15 lead.
Ben Leonhardt opened the pinning spree for Springboro at 138. It ended with a fall in 4:26 by Chad Salzar at 170.
“The match score was right about where I thought it would be after 160,” Boulton said. “I thought from 160 up would decide the difference in the match and it would come down to who showed up.”
It looked like it would be the Indians who would come storming back.
Back-to-back major decisions by Julius Crostty and Liam Herold for Fairfield cut the Springboro lead to 33-23, with the Indians to still receive a forfeit at 285.
Panther 220 John Floyd removed the questions early, recording two takedowns before securing the fall in 1:09 to wrap up the win.
“I knew his coaches were over there telling him he had to pin me,” Floyd said. “I thought we should have been seeded higher, and we didn’t really know what it was all about coming in down here.”
Boulton knows what it’s all about — heading south to face top-seeded Mason next week.
“This region goes through Mason,” Boulton said. “Until someone steps up and beats them, it goes through them.”
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