Thomas Hyde of Lancaster watches the referee count down the pin. Photo by Lisa Hinton-Valdrighi

The Red Devils beat Northern Neck District opponents Northumberland, 48-24, and Essex, 69-6, and shut out Tidewater’s King & Queen, 72-0, during a home match in Kilmarnock.

“Our performance against Northumberland was quite a bit better than when we lost to them a couple of weeks ago. Our team rose to the opportunity to avenge the earlier defeat,” said LHS coach Craig Oren. “I was impressed with the King & Queen team. For a first-year team, they wrestled well. I think a couple of their wrestlers could surprise some people in the upcoming regional tournament. Unfortunately, Essex had some injuries and other problems that resulted in a lot of forfeits.”

Scoring pins for the Devils against Northumberland were Joey Sanford, Brad Smith, Sam Friday, Thomas Hyde, Eric Keane and Kai Antonio. Trey Fisher also had an exhibition pin.

“It was great to have Joey [Sanford] back in the lineup after being out with a broken clavicle for the last six weeks,” said Oren. “Although Joey is a freshman, he has a lot of experience coming up from the middle school team. He had two pins on the night and has the potential to make a big impact at the district and regional tournament.”

Sanford, Smith, Friday, Keane, Hyde, Jordan Hodges and Shane Chambers also had pins against King & Queen. Winning by pin in exhibition matches were Trey Fisher and Christian Johnson.

Against the Trojans, Hodges won by pin and Keane by decision. Beau Nickerson and Smith both had wins in exhibition matches.

“Eric [Keane] had a hard-fought win against Kevin Clarke [of Essex],” said Oren. “This will likely be one of the better matchups in the upcoming district tournament. Eric is our team’s only senior and has been wrestling well. He has his mind set on accomplishing some goals he set for himself last year, but was unable to meet due to a season-ending injury.”

“Jordon Hodges also wrestled well for us,” he added. “He put together three wins for the night, which will be great for his confidence as we get closer to the post season.”

At Northumberland last Saturday, the Devils beat Fork Union, 42-27; Franklin, 48-18; and Middlesex, 53-18. Washington & Lee defeated Lancaster, 60-21, and Nottoway downed the Devils, 48-34.

Smith went unbeaten for the day to win a gold medal at 5-0 and lead Lancaster’s individual grapplers. Nickerson was 3-0. Friday, Hyde, Keane and Antonio were each 4-1 for the duals and Fisher was 3-2. Johnson and Elijah Lewis went 2-2 each.

“Going into the tournament we were missing six guys for various reasons,” said Oren. “So I was really pleased with the way our backup wrestlers were able to contribute, and the other starters seemed to step up and wrestle even better.

“Overall we wrestled well in the tournament,” he added. “Our only disappointing match was to our district rival W&L. They wrestled us tough. Coach [David] Wilkerson has got his young team doing the basics very well and we did not counter their technique. We have definitely got some work to do before the district tournament, but I am confident we will be able to respond to the loss with obvious improvement.”

Lancaster’s wrestlers will head to Mathews Saturday, January 28, for a day-long tournament and go to Washington & Lee Wednesday, February 1, for the Northern Neck District Tournament.