Fitzpatrick, Robinson dig deep to edge Westfield in Battlefield Duals wrestling

There was just more than a minute remaining in the penultimate bout of Friday's dual meet between No. 2 Westfield and No. 4 Robinson when 171-pound junior Tim Fitzpatrick realized the desperate straits he and the Rams had entered.

With Robinson clinging to a 22-18 lead and the match tied at one apiece, Westfield senior Dylan Doty went on the attack against Fitzpatrick. Doty maneuvered close to a takedown that, if completed, would have given him a three-point minor victory over Fitzpatrick. It also would have set up Doty's teammate, defending 189-pound state champion Austin Fallon, for a dual meet-clinching win.

"I was like, 'You can either give up this takedown and you're gonna lose, or you can just try to throw something and hopefully it works,' " Fitzpatrick said.

The hip toss that followed not only negated Doty's takedown, it resulted in a Fitzpatrick pin after he threw Doty to his back. That set off a wild celebration along the Robinson bench, as the Rams came away with a tightly contested 28-24 win on the opening night of the Battlefield Duals at Colonial Forge. The dual meet took more than two hours as seven of the 14 bouts were decided by two points or less.

"We knew it was gonna be tight, but that could have gone either way," said Robinson Coach Bryan Hazard, whose team improved to 5-2 this season.

The meet appeared to be turning in Westfield's favor after 140-pound senior Kyle Arnold scored a 6-5 victory over Robinson senior Roman Perryman, a Virginia AAA champion in 2007 and a state finalist last year. Arnold's upset cut Robinson's lead to 16-15, but in the next two matches, momentum swung back to the Rams. Senior Mickey Bennett won in overtime over Westfield's Harry Van Trees after scoring a reversal at the end of the third period in the 145-pound bout, and fellow senior Ben Stallings notched a 3-1 victory over Westfield senior Kevin Koch in the 152-pound weight class.

In other action, No. 1 Colonial Forge won its first two matches over Hayfield and River Hill by a combined 97 points, but suffered its first loss of the season to traditional Pennsylvania power Connellsville, 50-15, in the nightcap. The Eagles' Brett Garrison (130) and Nick Emison (152) both finished with 3-0 records.

Westfield recovered from its defeat with victories over Hickory (Va.) and Sachem-North (N.Y.), while Robinson finished the night with a 3-0 record.