Entering the final bout of last Wednesday night's match with Harford Tech, Perryville coach Thad Gough theorized that not many people outside of the Panthers' wrestling room were aware of freshman Adam Campbell. That changed last Wednesday night as Campbell's come-from-behind 10-7 victory propelled Perryville to a 39-36 triumph over visiting Harford Tech. "This is great. This is awesome," Gough said. "This is the best part of the whole sport." Competing in just his second varsity match, Campbell acknowledged he was nervous. "I was like really scared and stuff but by the end of the match I was getting pumped up and felt right at home," he said.
Campbell trailed the Cobras' Iniog Capinpin 5-1 late in the second period of the 145-pound match before rallying. "I just knew I had to wrestle my heart out," said Campbell. "And that's what I did." An escape narrowed the gap to 5-2, then Campbell scored a takedown and three near-fall points to grab a 7-5 advantage. "I threw in legs and then I was driving the power half," he said. "It made my confidence explode. I was so happy right then." Campbell was down to start the third period and was able to keep from being turned. "I was thinking just shuffle around the rest of the match," said Campbell. "But I knew I had to work for it. I was starting to get scared. I am 139 [pounds] and he's 145 so I was getting scared because I thought he was going to throw the muscles on." Instead, Campbell hung on for the decisive victory. "It means everything," he said. "Coming in as a freshman, it puts your confidence level up." Campbell's coach was impressed with the way he handled the pressure. "I had faith he was going to wake up and he did," Gough said. "Coming from the junior league, there's a jump from wrestling in tournaments with your parents around. You're not wrestling by yourself on a dual meet mat. So you come in here in high school and everyone in the gym is looking at you. It's just one of those things where it's pressure, and you're not used to it. Some kids melt and some kids shine. Adam shined." Josh Barnett (106), Nikolas Weatherington (113), Kole Dobash (152), Jarrett Hunter (160), and Steven Thomas (285) each posted a pin for Perryville, which improved its dual meet record to 3-0. "We've got a couple guys injured and we had a guy who went home sick which created some extra holes in the lineup. We knew Harford Tech was going to come in with a full lineup," Gough said. "So it was going to be tight." Harford Tech had won three bouts in a row to take a 36-30 lead heading into the last two bouts. Both teams were in a bit of a bind. The Cobras had one wrestler left and had to forfeit one of the matches. Perryville, on the other hand, was able to fill both spots with Campbell and senior Hunter Zacerous, but the Panthers' had to send out a wrestler first in the 138-pound bout. When Zacerous went to the mat, Harford Tech elected to forfeit the match to Zacerous and take its chances against Campbell. "We were in a tough spot," said Gough. "They know we had two guys left. We're not very deep. They knew we had Hunter and we had Adam. And Hunter's a returning state qualifier, regional placewinner a couple times, he's a known quantity. Adam Campbell's a freshman, just came up this year, nobody really knows what he is, you're going to bet against the guy you don't know compared to the guy you do." While Harford Tech had no way of knowing what to expect from Campbell, Gough was confident. "Even though he's a freshman, we've been watching him in the room and he's been solid all year," the coach said. "He's been impressive with his work ethic and his skill level. So we've been expecting good things from him, given where he is in the weight classes we didn't expect him to be a starter all the time, but in a situation like this, we knew we would have to pull him up. [Wednesday night] worked out to give him a chance to shine. After he woke up in the second period, he sure did." Comments are closed.
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