The Fort Mill Yellow Jackets overcame a tough match against their original rivals in the Indian Land Warriors to move onto the Upper State championship.
Fort Mill beat the Warriors 41-32 and will now host the Eastside Eagles in the Division II Upper State Championship on Wednesday, Feb. 5. Fort Mill improved to 17-0 on the season with the win.
“We were prepared better on moving guys around,” said Fort Mill head coach Adam Marullo.
Marullo said he knows matching up with the No. 2 ranked Eastside will be tough.
“I feel like our kids are working hard and I get the best assistants anyone can ask for,” he said. “We are going to be prepared. It is going to be a great match.”
This was the second meeting between the two teams as they still remained ranked No. 1 and No. 3 respectively in Division II standings.
Fort Mill got the best of Indian Land the first time with a 35-25 win, but it was one of the Jackets toughest opponents this season.
The Jackets started off the third-round match with a 14-4 major decision by Jayden Nguyen (138). Fort Mill’s Lincoln Greene (144) got a first period pin to push the score to 10-0.
Indian Land rallied with Kayden Fogarty (150) with a late third period pin to get them on the board. The Warriors took the lead as a Samuil Sobko (157) got a first period pin to put them ahead 12-10.
Fort Mill bounced back with a third period pin from Broden Mitcheson (165) to regain the lead.
Despite losing at 175, Fort Mill kept the overall lead at 16-15 with a 9-2 decision in the weight class.
Indian Land took the lead at 20-16 with an 18-1 tech fall at 190-pounds. Again, Fort Mill grabbed the lead on a second period pin by Ted Ernst (215), and then retained it on an 8-1 decision at heavyweight by Jonathan DaSilva. The win by DaSilva put Fort Mill up 25-20 allowing them to circle back to the lightweight division where they have been their strongest all season.
Brody Harris (106) got an 18-0 tech fall for Fort Mill and Luke Van Beynum (113) got a first period pin. Indian Land stayed close after an injury forfeit at 120-pounds by Fort Mill pulled the Warriors within 10 points at 36-26.
Tucker Gibson (126) closed the match out with an 18-1 tech-fall win to clinch it for Fort Mill, before the Jackets forfeited at 132-pounds to Indian Land’s Josh Horn.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
