The Cedartown Bulldogs wrestling team hosted their first home match since 1983 last Thursday. Cedartown, wrestling in the gym at Cedartown High, competed against St. Pius X and Villa Rica. The Bulldogs defeated St. Pius X, a private Catholic school from Atlanta, 60-24. Cedartown fell to Area 6-AAA foe Villa Rica, 54-18.

“We need to practice, practice, practice,” Cedartown Head Coach Jerry Hartline said. “We are getting to that point of the season were teams are starting to hit their stride, and as a first year program going against them, we are going to take our lumps. But the kids need to keep working hard and making strides.”

Against St. Pius X, the Bulldogs won all but one of their matches due to forfeits. St. Pius X, who does field an entire team, only brought their top five wrestlers to the tri-match. St. Pius X won their first four matches by pinfall, with only one match making it out of the first period.

Cedartown’s lone win came in their last match when Jerry Hand, wrestling up in the 125-pound division, won by pinfall with 26 seconds left in the first period.

In their match against Villa Rica, the Bulldogs didn’t have much luck as the Wildcats used their speed and experience to dominate Cedartown.

“I feel like the most important thing we need to do is learn moves,” Hartline said. “Because of focusing on that so much, I think our conditioning is not where it needs to be. Tonight I felt like our kids got tired too quickly in their matches. So we need to work on our conditioning some more. But we will continue to try and teach the kids as many moves and fundamentals as we can because I think that is the most important thing right now.”

Hartline pointed out three wrestlers that did well in the tri-match.

“Jerry Hand did good against St. Pius,” Hartline said. “Dylan Mason wrestled in the 160-pound division and was solid against Villa Rica. Cody Bailey wrestled in the 285-pound division and it was his first time to ever step on a mat and wrestle and he looked decent.”

On the junior varsity level, Koran Dyer and Joe Warner picked up impressive pins. Dyer pinned his opponent with 24 seconds left in the first period and Warner, who was up 14-3 at the time, pinned his guy with 58 seconds left in the second period.

"It was a good first home match for us," Hartline said. "Villa Rica and St. Pius both brought strong teams and it was a competitive night for all the teams."

Cedartown is wrestling again this Friday as they host their Polk County rivals, Rockmart, at 5 p.m. The varsity, junior varsity and middle school teams will all wrestle against the Yellow Jackets.

After that match, Cedartown will close out the 2007 calendar year by visiting Forsyth County to take on West Forsyth. That match will be on Saturday, Dec. 29 at noon.