Desert Hills outmuscles Cedar with pins

ST. GEORGE – Desert Hills pinned its way to victory in the duel meet over Cedar thanks to wins in the final three matches.

Defending state champion Cody Stevenson finished the meet with a second-period pin in the 195 weight class against Cedar's Wade Roche to pull out a 36-32 win for Desert Hills. The Redmen led 32-30 going into the final match before Stevenson stole the lead away.

Stevenson brough Roche down at the end of the first period with a double leg and started in the up position in the second.

"I knew I had to break him down," Stevenson said. "So I got him down with a nearside cradle and ended it with an arm bar."

Cutler Thomas and Ethan Del Toro preceded Stevenson with pins in the 170 and 182 weight classes.

Thomas brought down Cedar's Dallen Brooks in the second period in the 170 match. The two grapplers went scoreless in the first, but Thomas brought down Brooks early in the second and finished the match with a pin.

Del Toro played quick in 182 with a first-period pin of Cedar's McRae Murray, who actually had Del Toro in the bottom position. Del Toro reversed it and came back with a crossface that he turned to a barb wire finish.

"I ran it over and just held there," Del Toro said. "They called the pin with just a couple seconds before the period ended."

Cedar opened with a 10-0 lead after a forfeit in 106 and a win by Sandon Stokes over Desert Hills' Nathan Olsen. Peyton Pace got the Thunder onto the scoreboard with a pin on Cedar's Kaleb Weaver — a win at the 1:35 mark of the second period.

Jace Roundy outlasted Chance Bundy in 126 to get Cedar back to winning. Roundy recorded two different three-point near falls for a 13-7 match win. The first came in the second period when Bundy narrowly avoided getting pinned by keeping his right shoulder blade off the mat. The last one came toward the end of the third period to seal the win for Roundy and the Redmen.

Ashton Thomas got Desert Hills back to pinning Redmen in 132. He brought down Cedar's Tyler Rarrick with an arm bar finishing move.

From there, Cedar took back all the momentum toward a victory with wins by Dallon Grover, Kendrik Smith, Erick Olsen and Jayden Beazer. However, the only pin in that stretch came from Beazer 15 seconds into the second period. That opened just enough of a window for Desert Hills to come from behind and win on three straight pins.

"We're trying to work hard and get better every day," Del Toro said. "We all want to be at the top of the podium (at the state tournament)."

Follow Richard Briggs on Twitter, @BriggsRich.