SOUTH BERWICK — The Noble Knights were missing their top two wrestlers on Wednesday night, but five forfeit wins and a pair of pins would allow them to make it two straight wins over rival Marshwood.
The Knights took advantage of the free 30 points as they held off the Hawks in a 42-37 victory at Marshwood High.
“The forfeits helped us out and good thing because we didn’t wrestle very well,” said Noble coach Kevin Gray, who was without standouts Josh Cote and Sam Martel.
The match started with a forfeit win at 145 pounds as Noble’s Cole Cadwallader got his hand raised to make it 6-0.
Marshwood got on the board when David Spinney picked up an 11-0 major decision over Duncan McGilvery at 152 pounds to make it 6-4.

Noble would get back-to-back pins from Logan Rendell at 160 pounds and Chris Pilcher at 170 pounds as they built an 18-4 lead early in the contest.
Marshwood responded with a pin from Dylan Strong at 182, but Noble’s Gavin Hartford (195) and Aaron Foley-Pratt (220) accepted back-to-back forfeits to put the Knights up 30-10.
Zach Mercier answered for the Hawks with a first-period fall at 285 pounds to cut the lead to 30-16.
Noble’s Alex Marchand (106) and Jacob Dube (113) accepted forfeits to extend the Knights’ lead to 42-16 — and put the match out of reach.
The Hawks made the final score much closer as they won the final four bouts.
Marshwood’s Sean Moriarty and Noble’s Jaden Balcewicz each had their chances to pick up a pin at 120 pounds, but Moriarty would end up on top and earned the fall in 2:50.
Marshwood’s Carsen Goodwin recorded the fall just before the first-period buzzer at 126 pounds — and Aydin Rix-McElhinney picked up the pin at 132 pounds.
Liam Coomey closed things out with a hard-fought 6-1 win over Noble’s Aidan Orr at 138 pounds.
“Honestly, I’m really proud of the way the team wrestled tonight. Everyone showed up today. I know Noble’s got a couple of their starters out, so some of the matchups weren’t what we are going to see later on in the year, but we’ll figure that out when the time comes,” said Marshwood coach Pat Howard.
Howard’s team has been giving up a ton of points all year, but the first-year head coach knows it’s all about preparing for the postseason.
“Not having a full lineup hurts you in a dual meet, but we’re still a strong tournament team,” Howard said. “I told the kids that. (I said) ‘don’t worry about the team score tonight, we’re giving up a lot of weight classes, you just worry about your own match and your own individual success.’ The kids did that and really showed up today. I couldn’t be happier.”
Noble has been struggling with keeping wrestlers healthy this year — but the Knights are hoping to be at full strength as they head into the stretch run.
“It’s been tough. We’re a young team, but then to also have our core guys be the ones who are getting sick and injured, it’s been tough,” said Gray. “Everybody, hopefully, will be back by the end of this week. We have Josh back in the room, he’s cleared and ready to go. He was available today if we really needed him. Sam just got strep (throat) this week, so he’ll be on antibiotics and hopefully will be back by Friday. Hopefully by this weekend we’ll be full strength and getting in that groove.”
— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 780-9017. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.