Northern State dropped the first three matches of the night, but the Wolves bounced back and won the final three matches to rally for a wrestling win over Minnesota State Moorhead.

With the help of some veterans and newcomers, NSU opened up Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference action with a 22-16 win Thursday night at Wachs Arena.

The Dragons won the coin toss to decide what weight class to start at, and they chose 165 pounds, which helped to provide a 9-0 lead to start off the dual.

“They won the flip, so they wanted to start at 165, which we figured they just wanted to get some momentum,” said Wolves coach Rocky Burkett. “They flipped those two matches on us, and we really just kind of got out of our game. They frustrated us, so you know, panic sets in a little bit.”

But the panic didn’t affect Tyson Lien, who looked to fellow teammate, Teagan Block, to help refocus.

“Teagan Block came back and talked to me before I ran out of the tunnel. He just kind of helped me recenter and just kind of believe in my training,” said Lien. “He kind of fired me up a little bit.”

Lien’s match was tied 1-1 going into overtime, and Lien knew that he needed to finish the match in the first overtime. He scored a takedown with 25 seconds remaining right after a missed attempt.

“I was kind of trying to throw the kitchen sink at him because I didn’t want to go into the next overtime, and he caught me. That’s where he’s good,” Lien said. “We got out of it, and I knew I didn’t have many more lucky breaks left, so I just went. I knew I had to do one good attack and get it done.”

The crowd was quiet up to that stage, but came to life and was a factor the rest of the way.

“Our crowd is awesome, and they really back us up. So, I knew we had to do something to get it back on our side a little bit,” Lien said. “I don’t know if it affected any, but Nathan (Schauer) went out and got a pin right after me and got everyone real fired up for the break.”

Schauer came out in his match and scored a takedown in the first 15 seconds. Going into the second period, Schauer was on the bottom, and scored a reversal, which led to a pin for the Wolves, the only pin on the night, tying the match at 9-9 going into halftime.

Coming out of the break, NSU true freshman Sloan Johannsen faced a familiar foe, who he had beaten at the DWU Open 7-0. This time, Johannsen wasn’t able to seal the win as Moorhead’s Clayson Mele took him down as time expired to give the Dragons the one-point victory at the 125-pound weight class.

“Going into halftime, we were feeling pretty good. Sloan had beaten that guy before, and we lost to him at the end,” said Burkett. “We gotta win three out of the five. (Braydon) Mogle and Wyatt (Turnquist), we knew they were going to do their job.”

Mogle took the mat with the Wolves trailing 16-9 with only three wrestlers left in the lineup.

Mogle secured three points for Northern with an 8-2 win at 141. Turnquist, rated seventh at 149, gave the Wolves their first lead of the night with a 17-2 tech fall.

The Wolves were up 17-16 going into the final match of the night, which fell into the hands of true freshman Griffin Lundeen, who looked at it as “another match,” despite the dual hinging on that particular match.

“I just try to think of it as another match. I’ve wrestled 1,000 matches. I went out, wrestled another match,” Lundeen said. “Obviously, I thought about it. Yeah, it’s the deciding match, but just had to push that out of the way and go out and wrestle.”

Moorhead’s wrestler scored the first points with a takedown at 1:34 in the first period, but an escape from Lundeen cut the deficit to 3-1 at the end of the period. When the Dragons won the coin toss and chose to start at 165, Burkett selected the odd weight classes to choose the position in the second period for that exact moment.

“When we loss the toss, we get to pick which weight class we want choice in. So, we picked odd because we knew 125 and 157 we might need to help our freshmen out,” said Burkett. “We deferred to them, so it forced them to choose first. They went down.”

With Griffin taking the top position, he was able to ride out the second period keeping control, while also scoring eight points, getting four tilt points twice in the last minute of the second period.

“I know my go-to is the tilt. It was my go-to, so once I had that wrist, I was not letting go of that. For dear life, I was holding on,” said Lundeen. “I ended up turning him twice. It felt great. Going into the third, chose top and just got after it then, too.”

The third period was almost identical to the second period. Griffin kept top mount the entire period, and in the last minute, recorded a pair of four-point tilts to give the Wolves their second tech fall in a row.

“He’s a couple time state champ man, he’s freaking good,” Burkett said. “He’s been on the big stage a lot of times.”

The Wolves will head to the Midwest Classic in Indianapolis Dec. 14-15 before returning after Christmas Break to host the University of Sioux Falls.

165, Jacob Thomas, MSUM, def. Izaak Hunsley, 6-1; 174, Anthony Sykora, MSUM, def. Mason Fey, 9-2; 184, Wyatt Powell, MSUM def. Tanner Meyers, 5-0; 197, Tyson Lien, NSU, sudden victory over Isaiah Huus, 4-1; 285, Nathan Schauer, NSU, pinned Liam Babitt, 4:15;

125, Clayson Mele, MSUM, def. Sloan Johannsen, 6-5; 133, Thomas Carillo, MSUM, def. Brenden Salfrank, 13-2; 141, Braydon Mogle, NSU, def. Pedro Velazquez, 9-2; 149, Wyatt Turnquist, NSU, technical fall over Cody Wienen, 18-2; 157, Griffin Lundeen, NSU, technical fall over Jacob Reinardy, 18-3.

Exhibition: Ayden Viox, NSU, pinned Isaiah Wright, 4:40.