Wildcats overwhelm Tigers

Nevada's Scotty Bough fights out of an attempted pin by his Neosho opponent in Tuesday night's home dual. Bough went on to lose the match by decision. --Eric Wade/Daily Mail

"It was a rough night, but Neosho's a good team," Nevada Tigers head coach Devin White said of the dual meet between Nevada and the Wildcats of Neosho Tuesday night.

The Tiger grapplers struggled all around on the night and ultimately fell by a final combined score of 66-7. On the varsity side, Nevada was able to pick up two individual match wins, but was unable to recover from dropping their other eight matches.

Tanner Charles showed a strong performance to open the night for the Tigers at 103 lbs., fighting his way to a come from behind victory by decision in the final 10 seconds of his match. "Tanner's kid, he was stronger than Tanner, but he just stayed with him, hung with him for the first two and came out on top in the third."

The Tigers were able to pick up one more win on the night by Todd Brier in another match in which the Wildcats simply got "outworked," White said. "There's no shame in it, I guess you could say, but in a way there kind of is. It was a tough night," White said.

The Tigers showed tremendous intensity and work ethic in all of their matches on the night, but the strong, tough wrestlers that the Wildcats have on their side proved simply too much for the Tigers.

The Tigers were able to fight their way through the duration of their matches and were able to stay alive to force decisions in all but four matches, showing a strong will to succeed and more heart than anyone could have expected out of such an inexperienced squad.

"My guys, they worked really hard, they really did," White said. "I was very impressed with their work ethic and how hard they did work. Essentially, Neosho is a top-ranked team all the way through, plain and simple."

One wrestler, despite coming out on the losing end in his contest, put on a particularly strong performance. Gage Brooks came out strong and wrestled with tremendous heart that everyone present at the event took notice of.

"Gage, he's quite a kid, I like Gage a lot," White said. "He came out strong. With all the inexperience that we have, they all really wrestled really well. They wrestled hard and they didn't quit."

Hard work and heart was not in short supply on the night for the Tigers, but the inexperience showed and Neosho was able to use their sheer talent and experience to come out on top.

"I wish things could be different this year, we just don't have the talent and the room, so to speak," White said. "We've got the heart, we've got the desire, we've got the intensity, we're just lacking that talent."

On the JV side, the Tigers were able to come out on top in the first match of the night as Zach Shepherd was able to pick up a decision victory. Neosho recovered quickly, however, taking the next three matches with two pins and a major decision.

The Tigers hope to get back on the winning track tomorrow night, as they will be at home once again, hosting Bolivar at 6 p.m.