But in the circle of a wrestling mat, familiarity breeds scintillating, down-to-the-wire matches. In this case, it was Greater Neuse River 4A Conference rivals East Wake and Garner, who battled tooth-and-nail until East Wake topped the Trojans, 41-39.

“It’s always tough when we wrestle East Wake,” said Garner coach Wilton Bunn. “It could have gone either way.”

Both Bunn and Warriors’ coach Brian Staples noted that over the years, matches between the two teams have gone to the final bout often.

“We know them well and they know us,” Staples said. “It’s this way each time we meet. We like coming over here and having them come to us. It’s always a good, hard fight.”

This edition was settled when East Wake put together consecutive pins in the 132-, 138- and 145-pound weight classes. Those pins came from Azzam Dhamra, Rubert Perez and Daniel Killette, respectively, rallying East Wake from a 33-23 deficit.

The surge marked the second time the Warriors have used a trio of pins to recover from a double-digit deficit.

Garner had built an 18-5 cushion at the onset of the match with three straight pins of its own. Those falls came from William Hall at 170, Benny Francis-Sou at 182 and Brandon Russell at 195.

Cullen Casper had give the Warriors a 5-0 lead with a 20-4 technical fall win over Anthony Finochino. Had Casper pinned Finochino, the margin would have been 6-0, but the “missing” point kept both benches on edge the rest of the match.

“If we had lost by one point,” Staples joked, “we were going to have a ‘Come to Jesus’ meeting with Cullen after the meet.”

The specter of a possible one-point margin loomed as East Wake held a tenuous 35-33 lead with two matches remaining.

Cullen was able to breathe a sigh of relief when Killette pinned Emon Kiser to clinch the meet, giving East Wake a 41-33 lead with one match remaining.

“We knew it could come down to the last match,” Staples said. “That’s why we had to have those pins at 132, 138 and 145.”

The Warriors bounced back from that 18-5 hole with consecutive falls from 220-pounder Austin Smith, 285-pounder Josh Deis and 106-pounder Cody Staples.

That run produced a 23-18 lead, but the Trojans were far from done.

In a meet punctuated by three-bout winning streaks, Garner forged its 33-23 lead on a forfeit at 113, an overtime win at 120 from James Box and a pin at 126 by Sean Owens.

Box’s victory over Morgan Wilder had fans on the edge of their seats. A

After earning an escape with 10 seconds left in the third period to force overtime, Box weathered through three scoreless overtime periods. The breakthrough came in the riding criteria overtime when Box put Wilder on his back midway through the period for three points and a 10-7 triumph.

“I did feel comfortable,” Bunn said. “But I knew what they had coming up in the lineup. They matched up well with some of our good wrestlers, then went out and took it.

“I can’t say I’m pleased, but we did a good job.”

Staples said there was no rhyme or reason to East Wake’s win.

“We are so young,” he said. “I can’t say we have real strength anywhere in our lineup, except at 160. We were fortunate that all of our kids that won, except Caper, got pins.”