DOMINANT DEBUT: Lights pin Raiders on new mat

Coming off a close loss to open the dual season, the Montana State University-Northern Lights were anxious to get on the mat at home. And step on their brand new mat inside the Armory Gymnasium for their first home dual of the 2019-2020 season is what the Lights did Tuesday night.

They did it successfully, too.

In front of a big crowd in the Armory, the No. 17 Lights took care of business against un-ranked Southern Oregon Tuesday night, beating the Raiders 27-15 in a Cascade Conference Dual.

The Lights, who started three true freshmen in their first home dual, came out of the gate strong, jumping out to a 16-0 lead, and controlling the dual from start-to-finish.

"They (Raiders) are young, like us," Northern head coach Tyson Thivierge said. "But no matter what the rankings are, or who they've got, Southern Oregon is always dangerous. They're always tough when you get out on the mat with them, and they are difficult to wrestle. So we knew we had to be tough ourselves tonight, and I thought for the most part, we were."

The Lights were at the start.

Senior Rob Pair fell behind 2-0 at 125 pounds but, he quickly turned that around and helped Northern open the dual with a dominant 10-3 decision. Former 125-pounder Nick Kunz followed Pair's win with a major decision at 133 pounds, and with Southern Oregon open at 141, the Lights were off and running.

Then, at 149 pounds, the Lights sent out true freshman Lane Paulson, a former Havre Blue Pony standout, and in just his second career start - and his first match in front of the Northern faithful - Paulson delivered.

Paulson scored a take down and led 2-0 in the first period, but after the second, he found himself trailing SOU's Matt Peterson 3-2. But Paulson scored a quick three points at the start of the third, and then rode Peterson out for an exciting first Armory victory.

While Northern's other two true freshmen in the lineup Tuesday night came up just short in their matches, Thivierge was excited about the progress his young lineup is making.

"We are young right now," he said. "We started three true freshmen tonight. But you know, I thought they did OK. I thought they made strides. With a young team like this, it's a process, and those guys definitely showed some good things out there."

So did a couple of Northern juniors at the end of the dual.

With the Lights' lead cut down to 16-9 after Northern forfeited the 165-pound match, junior Chase Short stormed his way to a 18-2 technical fall over SOU's Fabian Miranda-Walls and, as expected, Isaac Bartel, the reigning Cascade Conference Wrestler of the Week, wasted little time in dispatching SOU's Josh Hammers at 197 pounds. Bartel pinned Hammers in 1:31 to officially clinch the dual for the Lights. The night would end with Rylan Moldenhauer and SOU's Tanner Clarke going to an entertaining five overtimes before Clark prevailed in the heavyweight bout, but the three points for SOU mattered none as Northern improved to 1-1 in dual action.

"We were better tonight, we scored some bonus points," Thivierge said. "We attacked much better, and I think for about three quarter's of the dual, we controlled the pace. We just got back to our style tonight and that was good to see."

Indeed, and the Lights will have a chance to do it all over again next Thursday night when they host Warner Pacific in another conference dual.

Lights 27, Southern Oregon 15

125 - Rob Pair, MSU-N dec. Lorenzo Vasquez, SOU, 10-3; 133 - Nick Kunz, MSU-N maj. dec. Beau Shatto, 9-14; 141 - Clayton Currier, MSU-N won by FFT; 149 - Lane Paulson, MSU-N dec. Matt Peterson, SOU, 6-3; 157 - JJ Talavera SOU dec. Caden Hilliard, MSU-N, 4-1; 165 - Hunter Peterson, SOU won by FFT; 174 - Chase Short, MSU-N tech. fall Fabian Miranda-Walls, SOU, 18-2; 184 - Tanner Sallee, SOU dec. Carl Hansen, MSU-N, 9-4; 197 - Isaac Bartel, MSU-N pinned Josh Hammers, SOU, 1:31; HWT - Tanner Clark, SOU dec. Rylan Moldenhauer, MSU-N, 5-4 in 5SVO.