Batavia uses eight consecutive match victories to take down Geneva

GENEVA — Batavia wrestling coach Tom Arlis knows a thing or two about how important momentum is when it comes to high school sports.

So when the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association Hall of Fame inductee saw each of his first three wrestlers come off the mat with losses to Geneva, he was a little nervous on how the night would pan out.

“If things start going bad, sometimes they can get real bad,” Arlis said. “But sometimes when things go well, that also becomes contagious. And then all of a sudden, the guy before you and after you gets a pin. So as a high school coach, you’re always trying to control that.”

Luckily for Arlis, the Bulldogs managed to swing that momentum into their favor.

Batavia finished the night with victories in eight of the final nine matches to pull off a 52-24 victory over Geneva.

Of the 14 possible matches of the night, seven were determined by forfeits. Of those forfeits, Batavia won five of them for 30 free points on the night.

“It’s difficult to get a read on the team whenever you know there’s going to be a lot of forfeits,” Arlis said. “As far as wrestling goes, we’ve still got a ways to go. It’s still early though and it’s a long season. We’re going to be a lot better at the end of the season than we are right now, but there was a lot of positives to look at.”

Of the seven matches that were not decided by forfeits, the Bulldogs ended up taking home bonus-point victories in each of the last four matches.

Jack Duraski had the first win of the night for Batavia with a 14-3 major decision victory in the 138-pound match.

The Bulldogs then followed that up with three straight wins by fall from Shane Fukumoto (144), Colin Peyton (165) and Jack Brown (175).

“By going out there and getting that big win, he really got us going on the mat,” Arlis said. “He did exactly what he was supposed to do as a captain.”

Geneva ended up rolling out nine wrestlers in the duel after losing wrestlers like David Rueth and Tennyson Welage-Stein to injury.

Head coach Thomas Chenrich said that while usually he would want to fill out the roster with the wrestlers at the lower level, it wasn’t worth it due to how early it is into the season.

“We’re just trying our best to put our kids in the right opportunities,” Chenrich said. “We’re not going to be throwing a junior varsity kid up there right now. But besides all that, I was pretty happy with everything.”

The Vikings did see some good victories to start the match with Sammy Sikorsky (120) and Andrew Wendt (132) picking up wins by decision. George Driesbach was the only Geneva wrestler to get a bonus-point victory, getting a win by fall in the 126 bout.

“George came out there pretty good,” Chenrich said. “He usually is a 120-pounder and Sammy is our 113. But while Sammy is a big 113 and can make that jump easily, George is a normal 120. So it was a bit of a jump for him, but he did well.”

Seniors Dontre McClose (113) and Joe Pettit (285) also added points on the board for the Vikings with forfeit victories.