The annual mat battle between Enumclaw and White River proves to be a hard-fought affair and Wednesday night's match was no different.

No. 2-ranked Enumclaw jumped to an early lead, survived a mid-match flurry by No. 12-ranked White River, then won three of the final five matches to take a 33-25 victory.

The South Puget Sound League tussle was on the EHS mats.

After Enumclaw built an early 18-3 lead, White River rallied with pins by Chase Myers and Dave Meagher, followed by a major decision by Richard Geddes, to take a one-point advantage.

Enumclaw had the advantage down the stretch and pulled out the win. Crucial to the victory were major decisions by David Kingman, Lucus Somera and Hunter File.

"That was fun," White River coach Joe Klein said talking about fans watching wrestling at its finest. "That's just good wrestling with that much intensity. We were planning to win some and keep it close and we did that. Our kids wrestled their butts off. They were tough."

"Who can't get excited about that," said Enumclaw coach Lee Reichert, whose Hornets stretched their league winning streak to 28. "The crowd got a great match. There's nothing like a close, tough match and that's what they got."

Reichert viewed the 112-pound match up between freshman Kingman, for EHS, and Bryce Thompson, White River, as the key. Enumclaw trailed by one at entering that match and Kingman scored a 13-2 major decision.

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