MARSHALL– The Marshall Tigers wrestling team had its home opener in a triangular match against Willmar High School and Zumbrota Mazdppe High School on Friday evening. Marshall defeated Willmar in an exciting comeback win 31-30. The Tigers would fall to Zumbrota Mazeppa 55-13.

In the first match, the Tigers would face off against the Willmar Cardinals and it was a back-and-forth affair all throughout the match. Some of the highlights included Aidan Mattison winning a fall in just eight seconds of work for the Tigers at 170 pounds. Teammate Dylan Louwagie earned three points for the Tigers due to earning more points in his match at 138 pounds.

However, the Tigers were still trailing by nin 30-21 heading into their final matches of the contest with Willmar.

Then magic happened.

The Cardinals would forfeit one of the matches to the Tigers giving them six points and cutting the deficit to three. Then Gavin Schaefer would wrestle to see if he could earn a win in his match and a comeback victory for the Tigers. Schaefer was winning on points in the first five minutes but just barely and needed to make up ground. Then Schafer picked up his opponent, dropped to the ground, and rolled him on his back with just 12 seconds remaining in the match to give the Tigers their first home win of the season.

“We kind of get in the habit of relying on the same guys all the time,” Tigers head coach Justin Bouwman. “We just talked about we need everybody to come together and that was a total team win. It is exciting to see when we pull that off.”

Although the Tigers would fall in their second contest of the night. Louwagie would win the 165th match of his career at Marshall High School, breaking a record. The record was previously held by Hsa Law Eh. Also, Mattison earned his second fall of the night for the Tigers against Mazdppe.

The Tigers will wrestle next Friday against Redwood Valley High School at 4 p.m.