Amory Hills knew what he had to do — and he wasted very little time doing it.
Hills, the No. 3 ranked heavyweight in Maryland by legacywrestling.com, pinned Towson’s Josh Dennis in an expedient 31 seconds to break up a tie team score and give the Millers a 42-36 victory over host Towson in a clash of unbeaten dual teams.
The win capped a comeback which saw the Millers (6-0) trail by as much as 11 points in the match. For Hills, it was not an unfamiliar position.
“I put in the work in practice and it makes matches like this easy,” Hills said. “I knew what I had to do, and I just went out and did it.”
The Millers competed Thursday down two wrestlers. The Generals (5-1) proved they were more than game, using a 25-9 tech fall by Nick Toung over Milford’s Amir Bogus to take a 23-12 lead in the team score after the 138-pound match.
“We only have eight wins, max, in any given match,” Milford Mill coach Daymon Royster said. “Two of our starters were out, so that brought us down to six. They caught one of our wrestlers and pinned him, and that made it close.”
After the loss at 138, the Millers got pins by Xavier Berchie at 144 as well as another at 150 by Jamel Epps to take a 24-23 lead with six matches left.
Towson responded in the next match when Ethan Jones got three points for a takedown in the third period to edge Milford’s Josh Beltran, 9-8 and put the Generals back ahead, 26-24.
The Generals extended the lead in the next match, when Ryan Dunn eventually Milford’s Ethan Royster at 5:12 to run the team lead to 32-24.
The Millers showed their quick-strike capability in the next two matches. At 175, Donald Ani pinned Towson’s Maddie MacKenzie in :55 seconds, and Drey’an Pitts did the same to his opponent, Korbin Suskin in 1:03 at 190. This gave the Millers a 36-32 lead.
Going into the final two matches, Towson needed points. The Generals got them at 215 when Xavier Higginbottam bested Milford’s Daron King, 10-2, to tie the match at 36-36 with only the heavyweight class left.
That’s when Hills took all the drama away.
“We know exactly what we are. We can wrestle with anybody in eight weight classes,” Coach Royster said. “After that, there’s a drop off down to where we have a whole bunch of real young guys. In this league in Baltimore County, wins are hard to come by. This our third match where it came down to the last match. We have the best in the business in Amory to finish it out.”
For Towson, the loss was a learning experience.
“They are a tough team and we got beaten handily by them last year,” Generals’ coach P.J. Lenhart said. “To only lose to them by six points is something I’m proud of. They’ve worked hard to correct the mistakes we made last year and I think it shows.”
Milford Mill 42, Towson 36
103: Jenning (MM) wbf; 112: Witherspoon (TOW) p. Gutierrez, 3:52; 120: Owens (MM) p. Joffe, 1:39; 126: Bhatia (TOW) wbf; 132: Grace (TOW) p. Barbour, :27; 138: N. Toung (TOW) tech fall Bogus, 25-9; 144: Berchie (MM) p. Nesspor, :47; 150: Epps (MM) p. R. Toung, 3:48; Jones (TOW) d. Beltran, 9-8; 165: Dunn (TOW) p. Royster, 5:12; 175: Ani (MM) p MacKenzie, :55; 190: Pitts (MM) p Suskin, 1:03; 215: Higginbottam (TOW) maj dec. King, 10-2: Hvy: Hills (MM) p. Dennis, :31.
