GRANTHAM, PA – Host Messiah won the final five bouts, including the last two by forfeit, to rally past visiting Johns Hopkins, 35-14, in non-conference wrestling action Wednesday night.  The Falcons improve to 4-0 on the year, while the Blue Jays slip to 1-3.
 
The teams alternated wins through five bouts with the Blue Jays snatching wins at 125, 141 and 157 to grab a 14-11 lead.  Freshman Duncan Stadler got Johns Hopkins off to a quick start as the needed just 56 seconds to pin Austin Jeffrey at 125.  After a Mason Casey pin for the Falcons at 133, the Blue Jays got an 18-1 technical fall victory from freshman Giorgio Difalco at 141, which Levin Snyder matched with a technical fall for the Falcons at 149 to even things up at 11.
 
The two featured matches of the evening followed at 157 and 165 and both proved to be tight affairs.
 
At 157, Blue Jay sophomore Freddy Pimental used a pair of first-period takedowns to grab an early 6-2 lead on Messiah's Clay Gainer, who entered the match ranked 20^th in the nation in the Open Mat Division III rankings.  Gainer had the deficit down to 7-6 after a takedown with 54 seconds left in the third period, but Pimental added an escape point 17 seconds later and held Gainer off to score the decision and give the Jays a 14-11 lead.
 
Keegan Demarest, who is currently ranked seventh nationally by Open Mat,  then edged Hopkins' Chris Roybal, 4-1, at 165 to jump-start a run of five straight wins for the Falcons that put the match away.  After a scoreless first period, Roybal started on bottom in the second period and scored a quick escape to grab a one-point lead, but Demarest got a point on stalling later in the second and added a third-period reversal and riding time point to account for the 4-1 final score.
 
The Falcons added wins by technical fall and major decision at 174 and 184, respectively, before forfeit wins at 197 and 285 closed out the match and accounted for the 35-14 final score.
 
Johns Hopkins will return on action Saturday, January 4 when the Blue Jays host York (PA) in the first dual meet of the season (1 pm).
 
Messiah-35, Johns Hopkins-14
125 – Duncan Stadler (J) pin Austin Jeffrey (M) (0:56) 6-0
133 – Mason Casey (M) pin Andrew Mahony (J) (2:27) (6-6)
141 – Giorgio Difalco (J) tech. fall Asa Brunk (M), 18-1 (11-6)
149 – Levi Snyder (M) tech. fall Brennan McGrann (J), 21-6 (11-11)
157 – Freddy Pimental (J) dec. #20 Clay Gainer (M), 8-6 (14-11)
165 – #7 Keegan Demarest (M) dec. Chris Roybal (J), 4-1 (14-14)
174 – Austin Brass (M) tech. fall Connor Powell (J), 17-2 (14-19)
184 – Slayton (M) maj. dec. Noah Graber (J), 14-3 (14-23)
197 – Sawyer Dereszynski (M) win by forfeit (14-29)
285 – Micah Martinez (M) win by forfeit (14-35)
 
Exhibitions
141 – Dhilan Patel (J) dec. Landen Pangborn (M), 9-6
165 – Noah O'Connor (J) maj. dec. Drew Kozubal (M), 12-1