The Panther wrestlers were hunted down by the Huskies from Northern Illinois Sunday in 25 -12 defeat – Eastern’s ninth of the season.

Eastern had some trouble finishing out matches, which ended up being the key reason for the defeat.

“Northern has been wrestling well especially of late,” head wrestling coach Ralph McCausland said. “There were a couple of matches where they just out-wrestled us, but there were four matches where the last person to score would’ve won the match. We didn’t get any of them.”

The meet began at the 184-pound weight class with Kyle Bracey wrestling Northern’s Ben Heizer, who is ranked No. 11 in the country. Heizer won the match 15-3, a major decision over Bracey, giving Northern a four-point lead in the match.

Panther Jim Kessner lost a close match to his opponent Jack Dennis of Northern 11-8.

At 285 pounds, Joe Gleissner wrestled an exciting back-and-forth match with Jon Lovrich. The two wrestlers traded control throughout the match. Gleissner had a near fall over Lovrich and they each pulled out reversals against one another.

At the end of the time in the match the score was tied. Unfortunatly, Northern was awarded one point for riding time which was what the difference in the match was.

Gleissner lost 7-6.

“There were tight matches at 197 and heavy weights,” McCausland said. “There were four pivotal matches this dual and we didn’t get any of them.”

At 125 pounds, Eastern’s Brandon Murphy lost a major decision to Marlon Felton 14-2, with Northern winning the dual 14-0.

Eastern caught its first break at 133 pounds when Pat Dowty stepped up and defeated his opponent pinning Sam Hiatt form Northern in under two minutes.

At 141, Nick Cirrincione was defeated 5-2 by Oliver Vasquez to give Northern an 18-6 lead heading into the seventh match.

Panther Freshman Andy Coyle stepped up at 149 and defeated his counter part Alex Nelson 7-4.

At 157, Frank DeFilippis had his work cut out for him taking on Northern senior Scott Owen who went into the match with a 23-1 record and a national ranking of No.7. Owen pulled out the victory over DeFilippis 13-3.

Sam Smith was the next Panther to fall after losing the 165-pound bout 0-6 against Bryce Hasemann.

For the final match of the day at 174 pounds Louis Taylor held on to win his match in overtime, 3-1 against Bill Lowney, but it made no difference as the Panther ended up losing by a score of 25-12.

“We should have easily won six out of 10 matches but we only won three,” McCausland said. ” We were 1-for-5 in matches that were decided in the last minutes. Crucial mistakes and not commiting to the end is what did it.

“We have to increase tempo and find match point. We have to find the drive or internal fortitude to bring us through the last scoring series,” he said.