Hammond finished a disappointing seventh in a tournament last weekend at Douglass in Prince George's County.
Heading into yesterday's match at Atholton, several team members were fired up and felt they had something to prove.
And so they did.
Hammond used pins from Mike Chang, Dan Parsons and Tony Tan plus a technical fall from Hansel Henry and several other strong performances to score a 37-18 victory over host Atholton in a Howard County match yesterday.
Hammond (2-1, 1-0) won the county's regular-season title each of the last three years and taken its tournament title the last two years. But the seventh-place finish apparently started whispers that the Bears were not as good this year.
And the Bears heard them.
"We came out today to show the county that we've still got it," said the 119-pound Chang, who won the county title and took third in the region last year. "We had to show them we're still up there."
Coach Jeff Starnes said his team did not wrestle up to its potential last weekend, but that it did not do that badly. It was only 15 points out of third place.
Tan, a junior varsity wrestler, got the team off to a quick start at 103 by pinning Jason Mach in 44 seconds. After Shawn O'Hargan (112) won by decision for Atholton, Chang (119) rolled up an 11-2 lead before pinning Elliott Lipple at 5:47 for a 12-3 lead.
Wade Zancan (125) and David Tangredi (130) each won one-point decisions for Atholton to cut the lead to 12-9. Hammond then answered as Nick Britz (135) scored a 13-3 victory over Todd Shorb.
County and regional champion Josh Zillmer (140) made his first appearance of the season for Hammond. Zillmer, who had injured his shoulder, posted a 5-0 victory over Stefan Pastine.
Matt Gordon (145) then got Atholton's lone pin, at 5:23 over Nate Harris, which sliced the lead to 19-15.
But Hammond won the next three matches and four out of the last five, to seal the victory.
Don Clark (152) started the run by scoring 10 of the final 12 points en route to a 16-8 victory over Tim McGrail.
Henry (160) rolled to an 18-5 lead after two before wrapping up the technical fall (22-7) in the third period over John Pramik.
Hammond's Jimmy Weston (171), a county champion and regional runner-up last year, took command in the second period and scored a 12-5 victory over Matt Radik that clinched the match.
Heavyweight Parsons concluded the match for Hammond with a pin at 1:50 over Paul McElheny.
Inexperience continues to plague Atholton (0-3, 0-1). Coach Ron McMillan put eight freshmen or sophomores on the mat against Hammond and he said they need to learn.
"Young kids will be up one match, down one match," said McMillan. "They're not a team yet. They need to use 'we' instead of I.'"