Wattenbarger’s 1-Point Final-Bout Win Gives Brookfield Same Against Marceline
MARCELINE — The clash of north Missouri Class 1 high school wrestling titans a week ago Wednesday didn’t disappoint, even when delayed.Pushed back a day, due to the large snowstorm two days before, the Marceline and visiting Brookfield boys’ and girls’ varsity squads kept their respective fan bases geeked up throughout the evening’s action before the guests departed with two close victories, the boys’ by a single point – 34-33 – when BHS took the closing bout by a 1-point decision, and the girls’ 43-30.The competition was highlighted by not just two clashes of 2023 state medal-winners captured by the road team, including the first loss of the season by 2-times MHS state medalist Payton Weese, delivered by BHS’ own 2-times medal earner, Riley Howell, but also a dramatic, outcome-deciding final boys’ bout.With Marceline’s Tigers having come from behind to lead 33-31 with maximum-points triumphs in four of the preceding five mid- and upper-weight bouts – two of them forfeits, due to gaps in the Bulldogs’ lineup, two wrestlers without glistening season records found themselves squarely in the glare of the Linn County rivalry spotlight when the visitors’ Jackson Wattenbarger and the home squad’s Broc Cordray strode onto the black mat for the match-ending 285-pounds bout.With the tension level high and the air thick with emotion, the two did as two evenly-matched heaviest-weight division combatants often do – produce few or no points for a long time.Indeed, after neither get the other off his feet with control in the first two minutes, Cordray could not free himself from Wattenbarger’s control through the second period, sending the last bout to its last regulation period still scoreless.The Bulldog’s choice to be in the “bottom” position – under Cordray’s control – to start the third period finally produced a change from goose eggs on the scoreboard when the BHS wrestler not only freed himself from Cordray’s grip, but managed to segue that escape into a reversal and a 2-0 lead.Try though the Tiger might – including forcing his foe into an illegal maneuver that handed him a potentially-crucial penalty point, Cordray again could not get himself loose for a tying escape in the remaining time and, at the final horn, it was Wattenbarger physically on top and also on top on the scoreboard, 2-1.
