Then-freshman Ares Carpio struggles under redshirt sophomore Dalton Miller’s lock during the Maroon and Gold Wrestle-Offs on Oct. 26, 2012. Carpio, now a junior, lost at Boise State on Jan. 23, 2015. (Photo by Kyle Newman)It seemed for a moment that the ASU wrestling team was on their way to another easy victory, but only held on to a 20-18 win on Friday night on the road against the Boise State Broncos after losing the last three bouts.
After heavyweight redshirt senior Chace Eskam recorded his 3-1 decision victory and gave ASU 20-9 lead with three bouts to go, it seemed like smooth sailing for ASU. However, that win was followed up by decision losses from junior Ares Carpio at 125 pounds, sophomore Judson Preskitt at 133 pounds and junior Matt Kraus at 141 pounds.
Going into Kraus' bout, Boise State trailed by five points and would have won the dual if the Broncos’ Geordan Martinez were able to get a pin. Thankfully for the Sun Devils, Kraus was able to survive and not get pinned and instead fell in a 5-3 decision.
Both teams won five bouts on the night but two major decision wins and a pin by the Sun Devils gave them enough of an advantage to come away with the win.
The first of those major decisions came from redshirt freshman Christian Pagdilao at 149 pounds who has had an outstanding start to the second half of the season. Pagdilao scored 17 points to Boise State’s Jake Valarde’s five points to score his major decision win.
The second of ASU’s major decision wins came, unsurprisingly, from redshirt junior Blake Stauffer who continues to make his case for top dog at 184 pounds in the nation. Stauffer, who is ranked number one in his weight class on TheOpenMat.com, scored 13 points while holding Xavier Callejas to only three for the major decision.
Redshirt junior Josh DaSilveira notched the biggest win of the night with his pin of Bronco Cody Dixon at the 2:56 mark of the first round. Those extra points were the difference between winning and losing for the Sun Devils on Friday.
The most intriguing news out of the dual came from redshirt senior Joel Smith. Smith had not seen any action since the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invite on Dec. 6 and was not listed as a probable for the dual on Friday. Despite all of that, he did step on to the mat to face off against Chris Castillo from Boise State.
His return, however, was short-lived. Much of the match was slowed by injury time with Sun Devil trainers looking at Smith for close to two minutes. Eventually the ref awarded the victory to Castillo by injury default, much to the dismay of Smith. It will be interesting to see it Smith tries it again on Sunday against the Stanford Cardinal.
The Cardinal will be the next dual for the Sun Devils this weekend as they will be heading to Palo Alto to face off against their Pac-12 foe on Sunday afternoon in the Maples Pavilion. That dual will begin at 12 p.m. and will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks.
Reach the reporter at wslane@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @bill_slane
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