Francis Scott Key 16-year coach Bill Hyson calmly sat in the North Carroll gym waiting as the junior varsity finals were coming to an end at yesterday's 25th annual Carroll County Wrestling Tournament.
Shortly after, his Eagles would grow closer to their first county title since 1978.
Matt Yinger surprised top-seed Joe Smith of Liberty with a decision win at 112. Ryan Etzler followed with a 6-3 win over Dameon Davis at 119, increasing the Eagles' team lead over runner-up North Carroll.
At that point, it was clear it was the Eagles night.
Key sent six wrestlers to the finals and five came away with titles to make the team championship an afterthought.
Key took the championship with 153.5 points, followed by North Carroll at 134 and South Carroll a close third with 126. Westminster was fourth with 105 points with Liberty claiming 38.
"This feels pretty good. As much as we've worked in recent years to earn credibility, winning the county is very big. It feels really good for the seniors, particularly the ones who've been around all four years," Hyson said. "We felt pretty good going into the finals because of the match-ups. We came through with some big wins through consolations and they had five out of six in the finals."
North Carroll's Tom Kiler came away with his third county title -- a 13-0 major decision over South Carroll's Kevin Sakalas, but it wasn't enough to help the Panthers as Key clinched its seventh title and snapped North Carroll's string of eight straight.
"It was tough seeing us lose, but we've got a lot of young guys and have done better than I expected this season," said Kiler, who won his third straight county title.
"We used to run over everyone, but it's all right. I'm impressed how we've done so far."
Defending state champs Zac Yinger (152) and Randy Owings (140) won titles for Key along with Steve Lessard (130).
Corey Rill (125), Erik Hott (145) and Bill Beltz (189) won titles for North Carroll.
South Carroll champions were Charlie Conaway (152), Steve Yokay (160) and Mike Chenoweth (171).
Freshman Bobby Biden led Westminster to its fourth-place finish with a county title at 103. Biden needed just 1:46 to pin South Carroll's Tim Hymiller in the finals.