Cougars keeping light on

Playoff hopes alive with 42-34 victory

Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2005

Click here to enlarge this photo Rachael Golden⁄The Gazette Quince Orchard heavyweight John Nasrin (bottom) gives Sherwood’s Sung Joon Ryou a lift Friday. Nasrin’s 8-0 major decision gave the team an insurmountable 42-22 lead with two matches left.

The Cougars had already dropped decisions to county heavyweights Whitman (43-27 on Dec. 7), Paint Branch (34-29 on Dec. 10) and Damascus (49-22 on Dec. 21) and a fourth setback would have all but ended the team’s goal of securing a postseason spot.

Apparently the batteries didn’t need replacing after all, because over the span of the next seven matches against Sherwood Quince Orchard shined brightly, winning all seven, starting with a decision by Josh Beanstock (145 pounds), and going on to a 42-34 victory.

‘‘We backed ourselves in a corner,” said Cougars coach Joe Hawkins, whose team improved to 11-3 with the win. ‘‘We lost three matches to the top teams ... so we’ve got to win out to have a chance at the dual-meet championships.”

Step one proved to be difficult indeed as Sherwood (5-4) jumped out to a 22-6 lead behind victories from Andy Lowy (119), Rhett Beattie (125), Steve Gamble (130) and Edwards (140). Lowy won by fall, Beattie worked a major decision, Gamble scored a pin and Edwards pinned Carter with eight seconds left in their match.

Robert Dudley produced Quince Orchard’s lone win during Sherwood’s fast start, a pin in 1 minute, 37 seconds at 135 pounds.

Beanstock (145) started the Cougars rally with a 9-2 win over Brian Carr, breaking open a close match with a reversal and a pair of two-point near falls to cut the Warriors’ lead to 22-9.

‘‘The guy before me didn’t perform as well as he could of,” Beanstock said. ‘‘He got stuck. It was a very close match but I knew what I had to do and I got it done.

‘‘I think we have the toughest schedule in the county right now. We’ve been [very] close all year and we knew what we had to do and everybody stepped it up and we got it done against a very good Sherwood team.”

Ryan Bentley (152) followed with a 16-0 technical fall to make the score 22-14. Mike Mascio then received a forfeit at 160 pounds to close the gap to 22-20 and Brian Crippin (171) pinned Brian Anderson in 48 seconds to give the Cougars their first lead at 26-22.

‘‘We’ve got strength in our lower weights but our upper weights, they missed time with the football so they missed the first three weeks and that’s a lot of learning time,” said Warriors coach Scott Beattie as the school’s football team reached the 4A state final this past fall. ‘‘We’re just trying to do something with them.”

Continuing the Cougars’ onslaught was Rashawn Gaskins (189) and Dake Williams (215), who recorded back-to-back pins in 19 seconds and 2:10 against Jeremy Muldoon and Matt Dawson to push the advantage to 38-22 with three matches left.

That meant any type of win by John Nasrin (275) would give Quince Orchard the match, and he came through with an 8-0 major decision against Sung Joon Ryou. Nasrin broke the scoreless tie with a reversal and three-point near fall in the final 11 seconds of the second period.

His win gave the Cougars an insurmountable 42-22 lead with two matches remaining.

‘‘I just knew I had to do what I needed to do to win because we really needed this to make it to the playoffs and the team needed me and all I thought about was the team,” Nasrin said.

Sherwood made the final score more respectable behind falls from Alex Hakspiel at 103 pounds and Hasani Samms at 112 pounds.

Quince Orchard’s race to the playoffs should be relatively easier the rest of the season but it still must face Northwest, Gaithersburg, Blake and Richard Montgomery.

‘‘It’s a lot of pressure,” Nasrin said. ‘‘You got out there every day knowing somebody wants a piece of you because everyone wants that last playoff spot, so we’ve just got to fight it out and hope to come out on top.”