WATERTOWN – Aberdeen Central picked up a pair of boys’ wrestling victories, including a dramatic one-point thriller over the host squad Thursday night in an Eastern South Dakota Conference triangular. The Golden Eagles defeated Harrisburg 40-27, then needed a late rally to take down Watertown 33-32.

The Golden Eagles opened the Harrisburg match with four straight victories, then won five of the final seven matches to secure the victory.

The win over Watertown, however, was not nearly as straight forward. The two teams bandied bouts and leads until a pair of Arrow pins late in the dual gave Watertown a 32-30 lead heading into the final match of the night.

There, Paxton Ewing continued the dramatics, rallying from a significant deficit on two different occasions just to force overtime. Ewing quickly found himself in a five-point deficit to begin the match, then again down by six at the start of the third period.

The senior fended off that deficit to force overtime, then ended the match and the dual with a takedown in the sudden victory period.

“It was about the most dramatic way you can win it,” admitted Central coach Donnie Bowden. “We came down and wrestled two quality teams and we got the job done.”

The wins come just ahead of Central’s final home event of the season, the annual Lee Wolf tournament. The boys’ half of that tournament will be held on Saturday at Golden Eagles Arena.

“There will be a lot of quality teams,” Bowden said of Saturday’s tournament field.

Action begins Saturday morning.

Aberdeen Central (AC) 40, Harrisburg (HAR) 27

106: Henry Gillen (AC) over Jonah Aadland (HAR) (Dec 4-3)

113: Paxton Ewing (AC) over   (HAR) (For.)

120: Esten Foss (AC) over Griffin Felder (HAR) (Dec 7-0)

126: Mason Backous (AC) over Myles Kettwig (HAR) (Dec 7-1)

132: Wyatt Davidson (HAR) over Logan Heier (AC) (Fall 0:46)

138: Steven Lamont (HAR) over Will Allen (AC) (MD 14-2)

144: Tristan Stoeser (HAR) over Jack Stuwe (AC) (Fall 4:00)

150: Hunter Herceg (AC) over Oliver Johnson (HAR) (TF 16-1 4:36)

157: Porter Lozenski (AC) over Aiden Ellerbroek (HAR) (Dec 14-8)

165: Ridley Waldo (AC) over Logan Johns (HAR) (TF 16-1 3:50)

175: Tayge Privett (HAR) over Kaylor Swenson (AC) (TF 18-2 4:47)

190: Grayden Timm (AC) over Chris Simunek (HAR) (Fall 1:44)

215: Owen Ward (AC) over Tayden Nguyen (HAR) (Fall 2:25)

285: Cooper Hodge (HAR) over Felipe Gonzalez (AC) (Fall 5:25)

Aberdeen Central (AC) 33, Watertown (WAT) 32

120: Esten Foss (AC) over Chase Mathews (WAT) (Dec 4-0)

126: Brody Randall (WAT) over Mason Backous (AC) (MD 10-1)

132: Shea Richter (WAT) over Logan Heier (AC) (Fall 2:47)

138: Will Allen (AC) over Max Stroup (WAT) (Dec 11-4)

144: Keslar Swenson (WAT) over Hunter Opitz (AC) (TF 24-6 5:50)

150: Porter Lozenski (AC) over Leo Dunn (WAT) (Fall 3:15)

157: Gage Lohr (WAT) over Jakob Van Der Meid (AC) (TF 19-4 2:43)

165: Ridley Waldo (AC) over Markus Pitkin (WAT) (Dec 8-3)

175: Kaylor Swenson (AC) over Landen Lewis (WAT) (Dec 11-4)

190: Grayden Timm (AC) over Cade Kuemper (WAT) (Fall 1:47)

215: Owen Ward (AC) over Kaleb Khalil (WAT) (Fall 0:47)

285: Conner Christianson (WAT) over Felipe Gonzalez (AC) (Fall 3:17)

106: Braylon Schell (WAT) over Henry Gillen (AC) (Fall 0:53)

113: Paxton Ewing (AC) over Jonah Anderson (WAT) (SV-1 17-14)