Lane Casey picked up a win for BEA in their match against Redwood Valley on Jan. 22.

When Redwood Valley and Blue Earth Area had wrestled all 13 of their matches on Jan. 22, the scoreboard showed the two teams tied at 36-36. The winner was then determined by criteria.

The first criteria used is which team won the most number of matches. The visiting Cardinals won seven matches while the host Buccaneers were victorious in six of the matches. Thus, Redwood Valley was awarded one point to give them the 37-36 victory over BEA.

“It was a close contest,” BEA head coach Dan Eckhardt said. “Things didn’t quite go our way.”

The Bucs got off to a good start against the Cardinals when Jase Casey received a forfeit at 107 pounds.

In the 114-pound match, Redwood Valley’s Jayce Guimond scored a first-period takedown before BEA’s Lane Casey scored on a reversal and put Guimod’s shoulders to the mat for a pin with eight seconds left in the first period.

Trailing 12-0, the Cardinals’ Nolan Ourda pinned the Bucs’ Jake Ryon Engelby in 1:09 to cut BEA’s lead to 12-6.

At 127 pounds BEA’s Drake Engelby scored a takedown over Myles Nelson in the first period before Nelson scored on an escape. Engelby took Nelson down again and took him to his back to record a fall 32 seconds into the match.

Wrestling at 133 pounds, the Bucs’s Timmy Nagel scored three takedowns and a three-point near fall to build up a 12-2 lead heading into the second period. Nagel started the second period in the down position before scoring on a reversal and then getting a pin at the 2:21 mark which gave BEA a 24-6 lead.

BEA’s Layden Basset built a 6-1 lead after the first period against Henry Benston in the 139-pound match.

The Redwood Falls wrestler had a good second period to take a 9-6 lead heading into the third period. Benston tallied three more points in the final period to win by a 12-6 decision that made the team score 24-9 with the Bucs in the lead.

Redwood Valley picked up six more points at 145 pounds when Casen Meyers was able to pin Collin Alfson at the 2:46 mark.

Max Dillon of the Cardinals won by a 15-0 technical fall over Danny Nagel to narrow the Bucs’ advantage to 24-20.

One of the most exciting matches of the evening was at 160 pounds. Redwood Valley’s Isaiah Nelson scored a takedown but then gave up an escape to take a 3-1 lead over BEA’s Colton Tolzmann at the end of the first period.

Nelson gave up an escape in the second period but then scored a takedown against Tolzmann to go on top 6-2 heading into the final two minutes of the match.

The Redwood Falls wrestler started on the bottom in the final period and scored an escape and a takedown to increase his lead to 10-2.

Nelson seemed to be in control of the match but then Tolzmann got an escape before recording a takedown which led to the BEA wrestler pinning Nelson at the 4:21 mark. Tolzmann’s pin made the score 30-20 in BEA’s favor.

The Cardinals’ Lucas Fuhr won the 172-pound match by a 10-1 major decision over Will Weerts to narrow BEA’s advantage to 30-24.

Redwood Valley’s Victor Ortega tied the team score at 30-30 when he pinned Kadyn Flowers in 3:43 in the 189-pound match.

The 215-pound match was won by the Cardinals’ Jax Hennen when he pinned Jacob Gambell at the 1:18 mark. Redwood Valley now led 36-30 heading into the final match.

At 285 pounds, BEA’s Chase Gambell got a takedown and then pinned Dylan Mertens in 1:29 to tie the score at 36-36 before Redwood Valley was awarded the winning point on criteria.

The Bucs participated in a tournament hosted by the Maple River/USC Longhorns on Saturday, Jan. 31.