Connally has a relatively young wrestling team that is gaining experience and it shows. They took to the mats again at home Jan. 13, which proved to be very unlucky for the Austin Maroons.

The young Cougar grapplers showed off their hard work by beating their opponents with a team score of 54-27 while earning several pins to finish off many of the matches.

Austin scored its first points of the match by forfeit in the 112-pound weight class. Next up came the 119 class, Connally’s Damon Anderson scored four points in the first period and was off to an impressive start against his Maroon opponent. The second period brought more scoring by both wrestlers as Anderson escaped from Rick Sanchez’s attempted pin giving up three points for the near fall. Sanchez eventually claimed a 12-9 win.

The 125-pound class was next and Cougar Cedric Robertson took on an experienced opponent who scored seven points in the first period to Robertson’s lone point. Robertson came out in the second trying to score and picked up four points before eventually losing 11-5.

Don Tran won for the Cougars by forfeit in the 130 pound class.

Connally’s Davonte Lyons came out fired up and scored four points quickly the 135 class. He kept his aggressive approach and took control by pinning his opponent in a match that was truly electric.

Jealious Ordillano added to the Cougar lead by scoring a pin in the 140 class with 2.7 seconds left in the first period.

Bryan Chang stepped up for the 145 class and gave nothing away fighting hard to be down by only two points after the first period. Chang scored five points in the second and come close to getting a nice move to finish off his tough opponent but he came up a little short.

Austin High scored two more forfeit wins in the 152 and 160 weight classes.

The Cougars got another forfeit win in the 171 class.

The excitement built as the weight classes went up and the Cougars smelled blood. Cedric Haley won by pin in the 180 class with 1:13 left in the first.

Next up was Kenneth Defee in 189 class who scored five points in the first period and looked dominant, scoring a win by pin with 1:15 left on the clock.

The Cougars kept the pressure on by having Jake Wertz step up and pin his opponent with 53.1 seconds left in the match.

The final event of the evening stretched to the third period with Connally’s James Revada winning by pin in the 285 class.

Connally coach Bill Robertson was ecstatic with the young squad stepping up and using the game plan they had practiced. He was impressed by the pins and effort by many of the Cougars who have not been in the sport for long.