Mike Bressler had a lot to say after watching his Decatur Gators beat city rival and South Puget League Central Division foe Todd Beamer, 37-36, in a draining match of emotion inside the Beamer gym Wednesday.

Bressler talked to his wrestlers afterward, emotionally excited, after 130-pound wrestler Justin Hartinger, sealed the deal.

"I'll tell you what, you guys fought your butts off out there, and, hey, we got the braggin' rights across town," said Bressler, his wrestlers gathered around him after the win listening joyously to every word.

Everyone was giddy and glorious feeling after this big win. Bressler said things that made the sweetness all that more sweeter for the Gators.

"Wa-ha-hoo, wa-ha-hoo..." it sounded like 135-pounder, senior Jerry Doran, a captain, was saying as he ran up the bleacher stairs happily after this big win over the Titans.

Definitely, the ending was something to scream about.

Hartinger posted the most exciting win, being the last match to decide it all, as he went up against a diligent competitor in Thomas Lowery and Hartinger won a hard fought minor decision after three pretty good rounds of wrestling, ending 8-2, for Hartinger to change a 36-34 Titans lead going in to all Gators going out.

"You can't get more pressure than that," said Bressler. "Justin gained a lot from that match. Tough position to be in, but that was a big confidence builder for him."

What did Hartinger, a junior, have to say after his match was the one that decided things?

Like being under pressure like that?

"I never did before," said Hartinger, pausing after that. By the way, Hartinger qualified to past league meets and made it to districts last year and won a couple matches there but did not qualify for state. "No, I don't like the pressure really. But when you win, its for the team."

And Brett Lucas, the Titans coach? Just what did he have to say after this one?

"I really do not have anything to say," Lucas said, afterward.

But if you could say something what would you say, coach?

"They beat us by one point tonight," said Lucas, adding, "Bressler had his guys ready to go."

Lucas has gone and changed the Titans program in his seven years coaching the program. He has done a fine job with assistant Ben Thuney through the years coaching this team to continuous quality and getting a quantifiable number of wrestlers yearly to state, like Bressler.

Bressler has had the Gators contenders in the SPSL South for nearly a decade now, way back when his sons, Kyle and Jason, lynch-pinned the program to success, with Kyle a state champ a year or two before going on to wrestle D-1 at Oregon State.

This was some match, with twists and turns and lead changes akin to a basketball game. The frenzied pace of excitement rivaled that hoops sport, too, but in it's own fresh wrestling way.

If one really wants to point to the biggest game-changer setting the tone early on in this match, it had to be when the Gators' firey and fast Dylan Aparis pinned weight class rival Ben Draeger in the 160 match. Aparis' win gave the Gators their biggest lead of the match halfway through, 28-9.

Aparis fought hard from the start of that one, attacking again and again against Draeger, who beat Aparis in the league meet last year before succumbing to Aparis in the regional meet.

Aparis beat Draeger during the season too, once, and, in that regional matchup Draeger led by a lot of points before Aparis' physical style caused pain and injury to Draeger and Aparis came back and beat him to send him away from districts just shy of making state.

"I was probably the most nervous before that match, even at state," said Aparis, giving full respect to his foe, Draeger.

The match from the beginning belonged to Aparis, the aggressor, getting a 7-2 lead after the first round. Then he upped it to 12-5 after the second. In the third round, Aparis and Draeger both fought hard with Draeger getting Aparis down even for points to make the score closer.

Bressler was shouting, "You got to keep wrestling down there," as Aparis was getting pressed into the mat by Draeger at the time, 30 seconds into round three.

Aparis used his strength and cunning to get to the edge of the mat out of bounds. So both wrestlers went back to the center, as Bressler said more words to Aparis, a senior, one of four captains on the team, "You got to keep the pressure on."

Aparis immediately from the break, in the down position, sprung out for an escape before getting a hold on Draeger and letting go.

Bressler kept urging his state qualifier last year to keep the pressure on and get in there. Aparis lunged a minute into round three at Draeger and seemingly had him in a good hold. But Aparis just let Draeger out of it...for a half a second. Aparis took Draeger by surprise and lunged in and 5-10 seconds later the referee was pounding his hand to the mat and whistling, signaling "pin."

"I was letting him up and backpedaling and I just jumped on him," Aparis said of the slamming move.

Aparis' win motivated his team, not to mention himself, as he went along the line of hands waiting for high fives from him after the win gave the Gators the huge 19-point aforementioned lead.

"He's been working hard in the off season," said Draeger. "He's a better wrestler than me now. Hopefully, I can peak at the right time."
The league meet is in early February, the regionals qualifier is after that in mid-February, and the mat classic is the weekend after that towards the end of February.

These two really do go at it and are fun to watch and will undoubtably both be in the hunt for state spots come that time of importance in league and regional meets.

"Dylan was dominant," said Bressler.

All his guys worked hard out there. Bressler vocally said that he was "proud of them."

The Titans started off the match with a pin from sophomore DeShar House at 125, so it was 6-0. Then Aron Set-Heit, another sophmore, got a 7-6 decision over hard-wrestling senior Gator Tyler Thomas. So that minor decision made it, 9-0, Titans. Then Doran did his thing.

He only had 3-4 losses all season, and most of those were to eventual third place state wrestler, Tyler Enos, who graduated last year, along with other Titan toughie Trevor Mills, who also was a state placer for Lucas' team.

Anyway, Doran's pin at 30 seconds into the second round made it, 9-6. Then, a freshman Gator, Lance Gibson, won his match, 19-11, over sophomore Matt Jeroma, who put up a losing good fight, but Gibson's win made it 10-9 Gators. Godfrey extended the lead with the quickest pin of the night, 29 seconds, and it was 16-9. Then the score ballooned to 22-9 the Gators' way with another freshman, Roland Gaydosh, getting a pin at 40 seconds into the third round. Aparis' pin win made it 28-9, before the Titans' senior Kevin Oyer got the Titans' much-needed momentum re-coralled a pin at 1:27. That led to another pin by senior Connor Gleason 55 seconds into the second round.

So 28-15 and 28-21 after Oyer and Gleason victories. Still, the Gators led and would extend it next on senior Matt Turner's pin, 34-21. In the 285 pound class, Brandon Barcelona, a Titans senior, was behind on points to the Gators' Jordan Wernet, a sophomore holding his own and leading 4-0 before penalties issued Wernet and Barcelona's reversal and near fall led to a 9-5 lead after round one.

Then 20 seconds into the second round Wernet came at Barcelona, running, like a bull charging, and Barcelona stepped aside of Wernet's charge and took him straight down and to pin position 26 seconds into the second round.

"He was big," said Barcelona. "I made some mistakes in the beginning and I fixed them."

Barcelona's pin made it 34-27 Gators as the Titans came charging back. The next wrester, a girl for the Titans, Stephanie Acorda, got a pin 47 seconds into the second round, so it was 34-33, Gators. Then Tre Uson gave the Titans back their lead they had to start this match with a tough 4-0 win over the Radislov Krysa, a junior, in this 112 match. Then was the Hartinger winner.

Lucas gave credit where credit was due for his team.

"Some of our guys, and girl, stepped up tonight," he said. "That was our first varsity win for a girl. She did a great job."

So, for saying something in the end after this one, Lucas said to the words "We just have to...

Get tough," he said, finishing the statement. Thuney was nearby shaking his head in agreement.

Bressler says that's not going to be a problem as he envisions some more clashing action between these two SPSL South titans in the future at upcoming league and regional meets.

"Beamer is going to be a helluva team," said Bressler.

And your guys?

"We got a young team, but they came and competed tonight," said Bressler. "They are a hard working group of kids. They need to keep on conditioning, keep on working hard every day."