In most sports, just winning is enough.
In the case for River Hill wrestling facing visiting Reservoir on Feb. 6, the margin of victory meant everything for the Hawks' chances of reaching the postseason duals.
If River Hill beat the Gators by 30 points or more, they would qualify for the 3A/4A East regional duals.
So when the Hawks ended up winning 49-22, it was a somber victory that put Glenelg into the regional duals on Feb. 11 instead, along with Old Mill, Bel Air and South River.
"Reservoir, Mt. Hebron and Chesapeake of Anne Arundel were the three common opponents that South River, Glenelg and River Hill all shared in our regular season. So basically, the point differential in the wins, add that up, and (the team with the most points in those wins) gets the three-seed," said River Hill coach Brandon Lauer. "If we didn't cover the 30-point spread, the head-to-head with Glenelg would come in to play and obviously we lost to them last week. ... We came up just a little bit short."
Throughout the match, the Hawks were looking for pins to capture enough bonus points to get the point differential.
But the match against Reservoir didn't start as planned as the Gators' Matt Gonzales overcame a 2-0 deficit against Bradley Smith to force overtime, and then secured the takedown in overtime to take one of several swing matches.
Still, the Hawks earned bonus points the next match as Sean Guthier downed Stephen Sims 11-2 to earn a major decision, then Jack Connolly (182), Brady Daniel (195) and Brian Kirby (220) each earned pins to extend the lead to 22-3.
In the heavyweight match, River Hill's Brett Schwab earned a takedown and looked to have Reservoir's Andrew Maleta on his back, only to be rolled over onto his own back and pinned in 2 minutes, 35 seconds to give the Gators much needed points to play spoiler.
"We went after it," Lauer said. "A couple swing matches, maybe one more lineup move could have been done to try and procure the win, but we wrestled hard and wrestled well."
The Hawks led 28-15 with six matches to go, but with Reservoir's Troy and Trent Kilcarr still to battle, River Hill needed to save points and get bonuses in other bouts.
Alex Potts and Andrew Mahoney got the job done at 120 and 126, but Troy (132) and Trent Kilcarr (138) earned a major decision and decision, respectively, to cut the deficit to 12 with two bouts left, meaning the Hawks needed pins in their final two matches to get the point spread needed.
But Ryan Erskine fell short against one of the top freshman in the county, Todd Del Tufo, earning only a decision at 145 pounds.
"We made a lot of lineup moves to try and go out and get pins and bonus points and really maximize our points," said Lauer. "I definitely think we wrestled hard, with a purpose and intensity. You want to try and wrestle like that every time you step on the mat so you don't have to worry about criteria to make the regional duals and stuff like that, but they wrestled hard."
River Hill (9-2, 20-6) now must change its focus from team to individuals, as the Hawks prepare to bounce back and try to win the county tournament Feb. 20-21.
"Just being that close, one match could have made the difference," said senior 106-pounder Matt Shealy, who earned a pin against Reservoir. "It's tough, but have to focus back up, and we've got about two weeks until counties so we're going to focus hard at practice, make sure we tighten up technique and be ready for counties."
For Reservoir, the point spread didn't matter. They were focused on winning the dual and Gators' coach Andy McIntyre was disappointed in how his team fell flat.
"We didn't match their intensity," McIntyre said. "They had more on the line they we did, we sort of had that goal of keeping them out of regional duals. The win definitely keeps them out. We kept them out anyway, but we didn't wrestle well. We lost almost all the little battles in every match."
The Gators, who fresh off a the mat after beating Atholton 58-15 and a 36-33 win on Thursday against an Arundel team that beat Glenelg earlier this season, suffered their first loss since the calendar turned to 2015.
Reservoir (6-5, 8-6) suffered the most losses since 2008, but now turns its attention to trying to place top-3 at the county tournament, a goal McIntrye thinks is possible with several potential county champions in the Kilcarr brothers, Dalton Kleinhen at 106 and Shawn Hamilton at 195.
"I think Oakland Mills is the class of the county, but I think we're right there with the rest of the county as a tournament team," McIntyre said.
Atholton (3-8, 8-20), which lost to River Hill 64-12 in the final match of the night, hopes to get a few wrestlers, like Stephen Frazier (106) and Wilie Hampton (113) toward the top of the podium at the county tournament and through to regionals the following week.
More than that, the Raiders have more wrestlers on the mat than they have had in several years. Coach Bruce Lindblad hopes the numbers translate into future success.
"I got a great assistant coach in Sid (Billups), and the kids work hard. That's our motto every day in practice, work hard, so that's how it's going to come," Lindblad said.
Reservoir 58, Atholton 15
152: Jeremiah Branch (Re) fft; (6-0)
160: Jahmyiri Jones (A) dec. Matt Gonzales (Re) 4-1; (6-3)
170: Stephen Sims (Re) fft; (12-3)
182: Harrison Shen (A) pinned Ben Howe (Re) :37; (12-9)
195: Tyler Ecker (Re) pinned Joe Lazzari (A) 3:31; (18-9)
220: Shawn Hamitlon (Re) fft; (24-9)
285: Andrew Maleta (Re) fft; (30-9)
106: Dalton Kleinhen (Re) dec. Stephen Frazier (A) 11-5 (33-9)
113: Willie Hampton (A) fft; (33-15)
120: Connor Tayman (Re) dec. Sean Divver (A) 6-4 (36-15)
126: Hayoung Park (Re) fft; (42-15)
132: Troy Kilcarr (Re) major dec. Cito Altamarino (A) 15-2; (46-15)
138: Todd Del Tufo (Re) pinned Alec Lewin (A) 3:32; (52-15)
145: Trent Kilcarr (Re) pinned Josh Pickens (A) 3:31; (58-15)
River Hill 49, Reservoir 22
160: Matt Gonzales (Re) dec. Bradley Smith (RH) 4-2 OT; (0-3)
170: Sean Guthier (RH) major dec. Stephen Sims (Re) 11-2; (4-3)
182: Jack Connolly (RH) pinned Ben Howe (Re) :19; (10-3)
195: Brady Daniel (RH) pinned Tyler Ecker (Re) 2:39; (16-3)
220: Brian Kirby (RH) pinned Shawn Hamilton (Re) 2:18; (22-3)
285: Andrew Maleta (Re) pinned Brett Schwab (RH) 2:35; (22-9)
106: Matt Shealy (RH) pinned Reece Kilcarr (Re) 4:27; (28-9)
113: Dalton Kleinhen (Re) pinned Swapna Vaja (RH) 1:19; (28-15)
120: Alex Potts (RH) pinned Connor Tayman (Re) 1:54; (34-15)
126: Andrew Mahoney (RH) pinned Hayoung Park (Re) 1:57; (40-15)
132: Troy Kilcarr (Re) major dec. Nathan Dustin (RH) 9-1; (40-19)
138: Trent Kilcarr (Re) dec. Tyler Bond (RH) 8-3; (40-22)
145: Ryan Erskine (RH) dec. Todd Del Tufo (Re) 6-1; (43-22)
152: Ryan Benedek (RH) injury default Jeremiah Branch (Re); (49-22)
River Hill 64, Atholton 12
170: Sean Guthier (RH) fft; (6-0)
182: Brady Daniel (RH) fft; (12-0)
195: Bebe Kum (RH) major dec. Joe Lazzari (A); (16-0)
220: Brian Kirby (RH) fft; (22-0)
285: Brett Schwab (RH) fft; (28-0)
106: Matt Shealy (RH) pinned Stephen Frazier (A) 2:15; (34-0)
113: Willie Hampton (A) pinned Swapna Vaja (RH) 1:34; (34-6)
120: Alex Potts (RH) pinned Sean Devver (A) 1:36; (40-6)
126: Andrew Mahoney (RH) fft; (46-6)
132: Cito Altamarino (A) dec. Nathan Dustin (RH) 8-1; (46-9)
138: Tyler Bond (RH) pinned Alec Lewin (A) 3:30; (52-9)
145: Ryan Erskine (RH) pinned Josh Pickens (A) 3:27; (58-9)
152: Ryan Benedek (RH) fft; (64-9)
160: Jahmyiri Jones (A) dec. Bradley Smith (RH) 4-0; (64-12)
Other scores:
Oakland Mills 51, Marriotts Ridge 9
Oakland Mills finishes the regular season perfect in county (11-0) and 20-2 overall to win its first regular season county dual title under coach Brad Howell, who has been at the helm since 1998.
The Scorpions will host the 1A/2A South regional duals on Feb. 11, and will face Poolesville in the first round. A win there and Oakland Mills would face the winner of Kent Island-Easton for a chance to reach the state duals on Feb. 14.