BUCHANAN — Its not how you start the season it’s how you finish it.

That was the sediments of each coach after Wednesday nights high school wrestling match between Dowagiac and Buchanan.

In the end it was the host Bucks taking a 56-15 non-league win. Buchanan took advantage of five forfeits by the Chieftains early in the contest.

“We are young first and foremost,” Dowagiac coach Alward said of his team. “We have a lot of freshman and sophomores on the team and very few juniors and seniors. We had a couple of close matches we won a few and lost a few. Early season stuff we’ll keep working and I’m proud of the kids and thought they wrestled hard. We had a couple of kids wrestling up tonight and that is difficult when you are giving up weight. Like I told the kids it’s not were you start but where you finish. I’m not taking anything away from Buchanan they are a good team. The matches we did wrestle we showed some good signs.”

Buchanan’s Alex Darmos got the Bucks the early lead with a pin of Dowagiac’s Kyle Gilson at 135. After the Chieftains first forfeit they picked up their first win of the night with a 1-0 decision win by Dan Crandall over Jon Lee at 145.

Buchanan’s lead ballooned to 36-3 after four consecutive voids by the Chieftains.

“It was a nice opener and we got a lot of JV matches in and our young kids got some time,” Buchanan coach Frank Mucha said of the seasons opener. “It was disappointing that we had a few forfeits to deal with. You want to get them on the mat and they are tired of butting heads with their teammates in the practice room. A win is a win and it’s good to be 1-0 and we will try to build on this over at Niles this weekend. It’s a good start but we don’t care what we are doing in December it’s what we do in February.”

Mack Green and Dustan Craig each added six points to the Bucks tally with pins over their opponents. Green pinned Anthony Nelson at 215 and Craig defeated Steve Baylock to boast Buchanan’s lead to 48-3.

Ray Vega gave his Chieftains another three points with a 7-4 decision over the Bucks Jonny Johnson. Taylor Glavin (112) and River Kelly (119) gave Buchanan its final points of the night with Glavin picking up a 13-9 decision over Jacob Worthington and Kelly with a technical fall win, 18-4, over Spencer Calley.

Dowagiac finished the match with a pair of wins by Ryan Smit (125) and Ben Luth (130). Smit defeated Alex Eger in a come from behind 9-7 decision win. Luth pinned John Querll for the final 56-15 score.

Dowagiac…15

Buchanan…56

103- Ray Vega (D) d. Jonny Johnson (B) 7-4

112- Taylor Glavin (B) d. Jacob Worthington (D) 13-9

119- River Kelly (B) d. Spencer Calley (D) Tech Fall 18-4

125- Ryan Smit (D) d. Alex Eger (B) 9-7

130- Ben Luth (D) d. John Querll (B) pin 3:38

135- Alex Darmos (B) d. Kyle Gilson (D) pin 0:38

140- Jeff Mucha (B) void

145- Dan Crandall (D) d. Jon Lee 1-0

152- Alex Brown (B) void

160- T.J. Miller (B) void

171- John Kuntz (B) void

189- Gage Hutchison (B) void

215- Mack Green (B) d. Anthony Nelson (D) pin 3:09

285- Dustan Craig (B) d. Steve Baylock (D) pin 3:14