It was only fitting that Jacob Ferguson and Deven Armbruster got Lehighton off on the right foot Wednesday night against Jim Thorpe.

The two upperclassmen came up with wins in the first two matches on Senior Night, propelling the Indians to a 50-14 victory in their final home match.

Ferguson registered a takedown with six seconds left to gain a 9-7 decision over Nikolas Schwartz at 172 in probably the most exciting bout of the evening. Armbruster followed with a solid 16-0 technical fall at 189 to set the tone.

“It was a great start with the seniors tonight,” said Lehighton head coach Floyd Brown. “Ferguson coming back, we knew that was going to be one of those toss-up matches. They have a tough kid there. He was able to come through and pull it out in the last 10 seconds with a takedown. That kind of got the momentum going.

“And then Deven came out and got a (tech fall). He wrestled really well. He’s a senior, last match at home, so I thought we wrestled really well. It was a good night.”

Ferguson got a first-period takedown to gain the early lead before Schwartz picked up a pair of takedowns to eventually gain a late 7-4 advantage. Ferguson cut the gap to one before getting his three-pointer to pull out the decision and give his team a 3-0 lead.

The opening contest was just one of a number of matches that could have gone either way.

“On paper, there were a couple of toss-ups and we were fortunate, I think, to get a bunch of the toss-ups matches,” said Brown. “So that really helped us out. And all those toss-ups actually ended up being pretty close matches and we were able to come out on top by a little bit, so that kind of helped us.”

Olympian mentor Dan Heaney echoed the importance of those “toss-ups.”

“I thought there were five matches that were going to be big matches in this dual that could determine it,” said Heaney. “Coming in, I felt like we needed to win some of them, but we didn’t get any of them. We were just on the losing end of those toss-up matches ...Nik Schwartz wrestled a great match, but just didn’t win. So, we just didn’t get anything going our way in those toss-ups.”

After Thorpe’s Aiden Sterling continued his impressive season with a pin at 215, two more of those seesaw battles occurred with the home team getting the upper hand.

Marc Macias gutted out a 2-0 win at 285, while Chase Lobasso registered a key fall at 107, to quickly up the team score to 17-6.

Another key weight class went the way of Lehighton at 121, as Jack Lucykanish used a second-period takedown to defeat Chris Jacobacci.

“(Jim Thorpe) has some really solid kids,” said Brown. “They had a couple of definites, and we had a couple of definites, and then there were those toss-ups, and we were able to kind of get the majority of them.

“Chase Lobasso at 107 kind of had a big win. That was one of those toss-up matches that we had. And at 121, Jack Lucykanish was another toss-up match I had and he was able to pull out a win. And through the middle we have some pretty tough kids. I thought they did their job. And they went out and got six.”

Following the Lucykanish victory, which put the score at 20-9, Lehighton posted wins — all pins — in five of the last six bouts. Those falls came from Danny Edgar (127), Lukas Croizier (139), Evan Wentz (145), Konner Nalesnik (152) and Aiden Dugan (160).

Win or lose, both coaches were just happy to get their kids on the mat again before the postseason starts.

“I think it’s good to get a match in,” said Heaney. “I really like when we wrestle Lehighton. We have a good little rivalry. We work together on the Coal Cracker tournament, plus we have a good relationship, so it’s a good fun match for the kids, and it was a great night for wrestling. We just didn’t win. And we do kind of have a long layoff until districts, so it’s good to get one in.”

“It’s definitely nice to have this,” said Brown. “I wish we kind of had one more along the way somewhere, but we have a two-week break now before districts, so having this to kind of break things up is kind of nice, to get some competition against other people. This is a great time to get in another dual meet or two. It kind of breaks up the monotony of practice all the time.”

SENIORS HONORED ... Besides Ferguson and Armbruster, five other varsity seniors were honored. They included Garrett Heiland, Connor Roetz, Kai Salles, Wyatt Smith and Brok Solt. Five seniors on the girls team were also recognized.

THORPE WINS ... The Olympians managed just three wins, with Sterling’s pin upping his record to 28-1. Thorpe’s other wins were a decision from Cooper Kresge, who was bumped up to 114, and a tech fall from Stephen Korte, who earned his 29th win of the season.

Lehighton 50, Jim Thorpe 14

172 - Jacob Ferguson (L) dec. Nikolas Schwartz, 9-7; 189 - Deven Armbruster (L) tech fall Gaetano Sarnelli, 16-0 (4:00); 215 - Aiden Sterling (JT) pinned Connor Roetz in 1:18; 285 - Marc Macias (L) dec. Blake Carroll, 2-0; 107 - Chase Lobasso pinned Jake Chamides in 1:40; 114 - Cooper Kresge (JT) dec. Michael D’Amico, 14-9; 121 - Jack Lucykanish (L) dec. Christoper Jacobacci, 4-1; 127 - Danny Edgar (L) pinned Joshua Mantilla in 2:36; 133 - Stephen Korte (JT) tech fall Connor Dugan, 20-3 (2:17); 139 - Lukas Croizier (L) pinned Jude Zito in :41; 145 - Evan Wentz (L) pinned Jared Mantilla in 1:26; 152 - Konner Nalesnik (L) pinned Donovan Llewellyn in 1:37; 160 - Aiden Dugan (L) pinned Connor Zurawa in 3:39.

Records: Jim Thorpe (11-7); Lehighton (12-6).