The visiting Francis Scott Key Eagles welcomed the Westminster Owls to the "Top 15" club in a not-so-kind manner last night.
No. 5 Key, a regular in the top 15 metro area poll in recent years, came away with a convincing 47-18 win over No. 13 Westminster, who made its first appearance in the poll this season after an impressive win at the Friends Tournament over the weekend.
The Owls certainly showed they belonged, at least for a while last night.
But every time they came close, the veteran Eagles (3-0) would have an answer.
Westminster's Matt Warner (130) pinned Mike Putnam to get the Owls within four at 16-12. But Steve Lessard (135) came right back for Key with a pin of Steve Hoff to push the lead back to 22-12.
Charlie Minor (140) got six back for the Owls with a pin of Gene Murray, but the rest of the night belonged to Key.
The back-breaker came from Tim Puckett at 160, who pinned Westminster's Skip Faries 1:44 in to give the Eagles a comfortable 35-18 lead. Zac Yinger's 12-5 decision win over Jason Hare at 171 clinched the match for the Eagles.
Key's Bill Hyson was undecided on who to wrestle at 160 and left it open going in, but saw the better matchup with Puckett at 160 and defending state champ Yinger at 171, despite giving up a lot of pounds to Hare.
"We thought the switch gave us a little better matchup," Hyson said.
"Tim Puckett's doing a great job. He's been really steady for us, is competitive and sound fundamentally. He's at 5-2 right now."
It was the third straight win for the Eagles at the time, following a major decision win from Randy Owings (145) over Kris Parker and a decision win by Robert Buntin (152) over Ray Henry.
Westminster's Charlie Minor pinned Gene Murray at 140 to get the Owls within 22-18 before the Key run. It was the third pin of the night for the Owls, who also got decks from Bobby Biden at 103 and Warner.
"I said going in we'd win three matches and would be lucky to win six," said Westminster second-year coach Henry Mohlhenrich.
"There was a couple of good matches. They're just better balanced than we are."
Hyson was also pleased with his upper weights, where there is some youth and inexperience. They didn't show it last night. Sophomore Bobby Bollinger added a decision win over Jeff Woodring, and John Frech, in his second year of wrestling, closed out the match with a pin of Jed Harris for the Eagles.