Flathead rolls over Butte

Rollin', rollin', rollin'.

The Flathead Braves got their wrestling season off to a great start Friday afternoon with a 64-7 shellacking of the Butte Bulldogs.

"It was a great first showing," said Flathead head coach Jeff Thompson.

The highly touted Braves had been feeling the bull's-eye on their backs, he said.

"You're always a little nervous as a coaching staff going into that first meeting," he said.

"We're highly ranked, all the coaches have been saying great things about us around the state, but you never really know until you step on that mat.

"I think we felt a little pressure. It's a very intense environment that we're in because we have so many talented young men," he added.

"But they got the butterflies out and they put on a show today."

The Braves lost just two matches - an 11-4 decision at 105 pounds and an 8-0 major decision at 125 pounds.

"The ones we lost, we've got to be a little disappointed, but we were in those matches," Thompson said.

"We didn't get dominated by any means."

Flathead moved Zach Reimnitz from 98 pounds to 105 to take on Butte's Jake Dellaserra.

"We've got two tough 98-pounders and he can compete with anybody in the state, so we were not afraid to move him up," the coach said.

Dellaserra won, 11-4.

Thompson also complimented the efforts of freshman Jeremiah Gaiser at 125 pounds.

"To be thrown to the wolves like that, he wrestled a great match. It was 2-0 with 30 seconds left. He just got caught a couple times," Thompson said.

The 'show' really got under way at 112 pounds.

Flathead's Shawn Lau, Class AA state champ at 98 pounds last year, picked up a major decision over Butte's Justin Rowling. Rowling was third at 98 pounds last year.

"That kid is a really solid wrestler," Thompson said of Rowling.

"They've battled for years, a lot of really close matches, but Shawn really stepped it up in the third period."

Lau led 3-0 going into the third - he scored a first period takedown, then got an escape to start the second.

Joaquin Calderon got a 12-5 decision at 119 pounds, Tanner Beaman picked up a forfeit at 130 and then Flathead rolled onward. Brian Ham pinned Butte's Marcus McCaughey. T.C. Decker picked up a 4-0 decision over C.J. Kissell - and then the floodgates opened with three pins, a technical fall and a major decision.

Flathead heavyweight Tyler Thomas put the exclamation point on the day when he pinned Mack Ferko 14 seconds into their match.

Thompson also complimented the effort of Tyler Wells for his technical fall win over Connor Leprowse.

"He's been working so hard. He's been on the mat practically every day since last year. He's just kind of a quiet leader and he's going to have a great year.

"We're happy with where we are at," Thompson added.

"We're wrestling extremely well on top, we're getting a lot of turns, a lot of pins and that's an area in the past that we had to work on.

"We've just got to continue to improve," Thompson said.

Flathead 64, Butte 7

98: Caleb Piasecki (F) won by forfeit; 105: Jake Dellaserra (B) dec. Zach Reimnitz 11-4; 112: Shawn Lau (F) maj. dec. Justin Rowling, 8-0; 119: Joaquin Calderon (F) dec. Zach Hettick 12-5; 125: Levi Lovshin (B) maj. dec. Jeremiah Gaiser, 8-0; 130: Tanner Beaman (F) won by forfeit; 135: Brian Ham (F) pinned Marcus McCaughey, 2:57; 140: T.C. Decker (F) dec. C.J. Kissell, 4-0; 145: Ryan Thiel (F) pinned Jay Hubber, 4:33; 152: Steve Mantel (F) dec. Todd Mulcahy, 11-4; 160: Tyler Wells (F) tech fall Connor Leprowse, 27-12; 171: David Lau (F) maj. dec. D.J. Renz, 16-2. 189: Luke Fischer (F) pinned Willy Pesanti, 1:13; 215: Mark Svenson (F) won by forfeit; 285: Tyler Thomas (F) pinned Mack Ferko, :14.