BEA’s Jordan Huse looks at the referee to see if he has his Rebel opponent pinned or not. Huse pinned Jacob Billings at 220 pounds.

The Blue Earth Area Buccaneer wrestling team started off action in the Class A Section 2 Team Tournament in high fashion last Thursday night in Blue Earth.

The No. 3 seeded Bucs downed the United South Central Rebels 60-13 in the BEA gym.

The Rebels, seeded at No. 6, had previously downed the No. 11 seeded St. Clair/Mankato Loyola team by a similar score of 60-18 in a match earlier on Thursday night.

The Bucs will now face off against the No. 2 seeded Eagles of Maple River, a match that was set for Saturday, Feb. 17, at 2 p.m. in the gym at Le Sueur-Henderson High School.

The winner of that match will go on to the championship match against either the No. 1 seeded team from Kenyon-Wanamingo, or the No. 5 seeded Medford Tigers for the right Class A Section 2 title and the right to go to state.

On Thursday night against the Rebels, the Bucs lost just three matches on their way to the big win.

Caleb Beeler got things going for the Bucs with an 8-4 win over Bryce Sonnek at 106 pounds. Ty Peterson pinned Ethan Elvebak of USC at 113, and Davis Sunken and Jack Frundt both won by forfeit at 120 and 126 respectively.

The Rebels Blake Legred took a 13-2 major decision over Koby Nagel at 132 pounds to give USC its first team points.

But Joe Schavey won by forfeit at 138 pounds for the Bucs, followed by Cole Warmka taking a 6-4 decision over Joe Bonsack at 145.

USC scored six more points when Hunter Johnson pinned Rylee McGuire 152 pounds.

BEA’s Jaxen Klinkner pinned Jacob Cory at 160 pounds and Zach Buseman won by a forfeit at 170.

The closest match of the night went to the Rebels when USC’s Masyn Elvebak and BEA’s Akeira Morrow went to overtime, with Elvebak taking the 11-9 win at 182 pounds.

The Bucs won the final three matches and got 18 more team points.

Dominic Whitlow won by a forfeit at 195 pounds, while at 220 Jordan Huse pinned Jacob Billings and Trevor Oppedal pinned David Garza of USC at 285 to end the match.

Details of the next round of the Section Team Tournament will be in the next Faribault County Register. Meanwhile the Section Individual Tournament will get underway on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 23 and 24, in Blue Earth.