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‘‘Wrestling is all about matchups,” said Blue Devils coach Rob Wendel. ‘‘And that’s kind of how it works — that’s how we can lose to Paint Branch, beat Sherwood, and they beat Paint Branch. It’s all about who you have where, and it’s about pinning instead of just winning.”

The Blue Devils’ day appeared headed in the right direction after a tremendous rally in their opening match of the day. They had fallen behind Sherwood, 24-10, in large part because of consecutive victories by its dominant trio of undefeated wrestlers: Andy Lowy (137), Rhett Beattie (142), and Steven Gamble (147).

But they rallied furiously, scoring the last 40 points of the match that included five pins. 154-pounder Kyle King got the comeback jumpstarted by finishing Geremy Muldoon in three minutes and 26 seconds, and Jordan Dow (160) cut the Warriors’ lead in half with a major-decision oust of Darrell Carter. After a forfeit victory gave them the lead, the Blue Devils ended the match with four straight victories by fall, with Mark Davis (189) in 2:59 over Josh Hertz, Paul Miliano (215) in 1:40 over Jesse Keys, Melvin Anderson (285) in 34 seconds over Andrew Midgette, and Kent Newgen (103) in 46 seconds over Stephen Lee.

They also picked up a huge win when 130-pounder Hector Guevara, who came from behind to defeat Adam Miller by fall. Guevara, who also won with a pin in the Blue Devils’ match later on against Paint Branch, struggled and wound up on his back earlier in the match, but recovered beautifully and reversed the advantage before the referee slapped the mat at 1:42.

‘‘That was a big exchange there,” said Wendel. ‘‘His match, if you think about it, it’s a 12-point swing. If Hector gets pinned, that’s a 12-point turnaround. That’s a tremendous difference, and it broke up their middle where Sherwood’s got studs.”

With emotions riding high after the great comeback, Springbrook carried momentum into it’s match against the Panthers, and took the lead 30-18 thanks to mid-match victories by returning state-qualifier Carlo Galeano (147) and Nadjitade Badje (173), plus a clutch pin by Dow.

But this time it was Paint Branch who rallied, getting a crucial victory when Jake Maddox (215) rallied from a huge deficit to beat Miliano in overtime. Down 6-1 and 9-4 and different points of the match, Maddox scored off a late maneuver to even the score at the buzzer. In sudden-death, he took down Miliano quickly to score the deciding points.

Maddox, who also pinned Jesse Keys of Sherwood in the Panthers’ opening match, cut the Blue Devil lead to three, and heavyweight William Reardon pinned Anderson to give Paint Branch the lead.

That set the stage for a scary scene that, unfortunately, decided that match. Springbrook’s 103-pounder, Newgen, came out charged up looking not only for his second pin of the day but also to give the Blue Devils the lead back. However, after getting Paint Branch’s Dan Scher on his stomach, Newgen bent Scher back awkwardly, and got whistled for a dangerous move disqualification. This gave the Panthers six automatic points and, with a 39-30 margin with only one match remaining, a guaranteed victory for the match.

But the real concern was with Scher, who was motionless on the ground after the move. He sat virtually without movement, partly for precautionary reasons, for 45 minutes before being placed on a stretcher and taken to the hospital.

After last year’s tragic incident involving Mike Tyler, a former Watkins Mill wrestler who was paralyzed and later died after breaking his neck during the Big Train Duals tournament against Richard Montgomery, wrestlers are given all safety measures possible when suffering any sort of spinal trauma. However, Smith later confirmed that Scher is okay and just a little sore.

‘‘It was an accident... but I saw the way he got bent back, and it reminded me of the way [Indianapolis quarterback] Peyton Manning got hit against the Redskins, I just went ‘Oh my gosh!’ He started to get up instinctively, though he couldn’t really grip strongly. But after the whole thing he said that he felt pretty good.”

‘‘The kid got hurt and you don’t want to see that, so it’s just unfortunate,” said Wendel. ‘‘Kent was wrestling aggressively, which is exactly what I get him to try to do, and ended up in a funky situation. But we had some matches we should have won — it didn’t come down to that match.”

He also picked up a victory in the opening bout with Sherwood, a major decision over Alex Hakspiel. Paint Branch had several other impressive performances in the match, including Vincent Chirichella (127) pinning Montgomery Barnsley in 52 seconds, Tim Stewart (162) topping Muldoon, Eric Richards (173) beating Darrell Carter in a tech fall, and Reardon pinning Midgette to end the match in a deadlock. However, Sherwood’s dominant middle lineup was the difference.

‘‘Their horses are hard to beat, they’ve got a couple horses in there but I felt we had the ability to beat them,” said Smith. ‘‘We just tried to salvage something with a win and that made it a little more bearable for me. It’s going to be a real tight race for the division between all three of these teams.”