Sprayberry's Late Surge Falls Short Against Walton

Trailing big early and gasping for air,’s Yellow Jackets made a late charge Tuesday and almost spoiled Walton’s Senior Night before falling 41-31 to the Raiders. The two teams had squared off Nov. 23 at the Hillgrove Duals, where coach Gary DeHaven’s Jackets squeezed out a 33-32 victory. Fittingly, a pair of Walton seniors made sure that lightning didn’t strike twice.

“I knew it was going to be close tonight, and it was,” observed DeHaven. “It came down to the last match. We lost a couple early. A couple of our seniors lost that we were really expecting to do better. Those things happen.”

Sprayberry 171-pounder Collin Schalk improved his record to 24-5 by pinning Walton’s Zach Pope 4:35 into the match, whittling a huge deficit, once 29-6, down to 29-25 with three classes remaining. Raider senior Connor Kimball (189) made it 35-25 with a pin of Darius Burton at 1:19, but Brett Haley (29-0) quickly returned the favor at 215, pinning Walton’s Luke Hendon just 20 seconds in to make it 35-31.

That left it to the heavyweights, where Walton had a big advantage with senior Brad Noble, No. 4 in Class-AAAAA last year and the defending Cobb County champion at the 285-pound weight class.

“I felt like if it came down to Brad’s match that we had a real good shot,” said Walton coach Pete Murphy. “Finishing up with Connor and Brad both at the end, I felt we had a good chance of scoring some points.”

Sprayberry's Luis Zertuche fought gamely, but Noble scored a pin midway through the second period to clinch the victory.

The meet followed a typical pattern for the Yellow Jackets, whose middleweights have usually been their top point scorers. With the match seemingly out of reach, they sparked the comeback. Thomas Cook (25-7) decisioned Max Fisher 55-1 at 145, Stephen Ogletree pinned Matt Kenney at 152, Seth Fox outpointed Dalton Hall 11-3, and Schalk won to make it close.

Sprayberry’s only winner in the first seven classes was 125-pounder Angelo Alvarez, who pinned Ryan Laban at 3:52 to improve to 20-13.       

DeHaven took the loss stoically after last week’s snowstorm severely limited Cobb teams’ workout schedules. Friday and Saturday (Jan. 21-22), his school will host the Cobb County Invitational.

“We got in one practice,” he reported. “That was on Monday. A few kids were going to the wrestling center and some different places. A lot of the young kids fought hard tonight, so I was happy with that. You never like to lose, but the dual season is pretty much over, so we’re concentrating on individuals now. We’ll get ready this weekend for Cobb County and go from there.”