The Thomas Jefferson Raiders wrestlers won two mighty close battles -- the down-to-the-wire, firey finish, even controversial, kind. But the host Decatur Gators showed their seniority at key points through the match and won the war, 41-29, in South Puget Sound League North action Thursday.

"TJ is a tough team," said Gators head coach Mike Bressler. "I knew all along this was going to be a battle. I just tried to prepare my kids. Jess (Workman) is a good coach. And they're not done. They will be tough in the postseason, too."

Bressler put the victory on a key class' shoulders.

"This was seniors night," said Bressler, who coached and took eight kids to state last year for the Gators and has been coaching the Gators close to 10 years now. "And this was the best show from our seniors I've seen in my time here. All four came through -- Eric Moerhle, Spencer Kabelac, Tristin Jones and Jensen De La Rosa."

Bressler was talking to his athletes afterward. He gave accolades to several wrestles.

"Spencer (Kabelac), you pushed and pushed and pushed and broke him down and got the fall, (Darren) Faber gave up points early but you pushed and pushed...," said Bressler as he also stated of the whole team, "Even if you were outmatched, you were still real conscious of not getting on your back."

Faber came back from a big deficit but still lost the in last second, literally.

In Faber's match, one of the two really close ones, he was locked in a great duel with TJ's Zach Roth, who led Faber, 8-4, after the second round. But Faber battled back to tie tings up, 9-9, in the last 30 seconds. Then Roth, as time was expiring, was trying to get himself released from Faber's grasp as Roth was standing up from the mat and ripping at Faber's tight grip. Roth was able to get away with no time left showing on the clock exactly as he escaped. The referee awarded the point and Roth won, 10-9.

"It's not my call to make," said Roth, a senior captain on the Raiders. "I can't say anything. It was a close call. I thought I could get it."

Getting things done when two final pins would have made this a tie match was De La Rosa. With the score 35-23 with two matches to go, and six points for a pin, De La Rosa, instead of getting pinned pinned his guy at 1:35 to seal the win. That made it 41-23. Even though the next TJ wrestler, sophomore Kyle McIntosh, pinned his guy, it still made the score 41-29 Gators.

"De La Rosa came through," said Bressler.

Workman is having fun coaching the Raiders and this match was down to the wire of not knowing the winner, or, at least, if the Raiders would get a tie out of it, until the final two matches.

"It was getting intense there. It was a close one," said Workman. "We were right there."

Unfortunately showing up on the team record, they only have one win this season in the SPSL North over their other league rival, Federal Way.

The individual scoring was close from the start and 135-pound junior Greg Bull set the tone with a close 11-9 win over Travis Reynolds. Then Moerhle won, 13-3, and Dylan Aparis won with a pin at 1:44 of round one. After that, Kabelac won by pin at 4:17 of the third round. The score mightily favored the Gators then, 18-0, but Randy Hentges then won for the Raiders, 11-5, to put them on the board, 18-4. The tough Tristan Jones, another state competitor last year like Bull and Kabelac, pinned his guy in the quickest technical fall of the night, coming at 53 seconds of the first round. That made it 24-4, Gators. Roth's minor decision win over Faber, 10-9, made it 24-7 in favor of the Gators. A Gators fofeit at 189 made it 24-13. Tevyn Tillman, the Gators' awesome heavyweight, won his match with a 1:14 pin in round one.

Tillman took fifth at state last year. He's only a junior.

Tillman lost one match to a wrestler from Kentridge, who he beat the second time around.

"I was beating him 7-0 and then he caught me the last three seconds," said Tillman.

Then another guy was from Spanaway Lake. Again, Tillman had a lead, 3-1, before the foe got a two-point reversal and a near fall to win 4-3.

"Those matches were early in the season. He got too high, got rolled, but he came back to beat the Kentridge kid, 9-0, the next time," said Bressler. "He's got the ability to be right there."

Tillman is a class act on the mat. He also is a good football lineman for the Gators.

What do the losses do for him?

"They get me pumped up to go out there and wrestle someone else, to look at what I did wrong and correct it."

Oh, to be that guy that faces Tillman after he's just lost to someone else. "You, wouldn't want to be you" is the operative phrase that comes to mind.

Tillman is with a pretty quiet, friendly helping demeanor, but when he gets on the mat he's a bull ready to get out of the cage.

And. with these early losses, it should do nothing but prepare him for what to do, and what not to do for that matter, in the near future. League action is Feb. 1, regionals is Feb. 8, and Mat Classic is Feb. 16 and 17.

After Tillman did his typical tanking of a foe -- pinning rather -- came the 103 pound wrestler Rad Krysa pinned his foe and that made it 36-13.

The Raiders did not give up, coming back with an exciting last-second pin win as Austin Meek won by pinning his guy in the final second, literally, of round three.

Meek was down, 8-2, in the second round at one point but never gave up.

"I knew I could get him," said Meek, a 112 pound wrestler. The Raiders crowd, in force pretty good at this match, was cheering for him. But could Meek hear them?

"I couldn't hear anything," said Meeks, answering the question why with "I guess I was in a zone."

That Meek win, a pin at 5:59, made it 35-19, Gators. Then Ivan Mukomoil won, 19-6, in the 119 pound match. De La Rosa was up next and won with the pin that stated for certain who the winner would be in this late-match barnburner.

Workman's team is a work in progress and with guys like Roth, McIntosh and others, hopefully, the season will be good in the postseason, too.

Mukomoil and McIntosh, and Roth, too, are likely able to get past league to regionals but Workman is not saying.

"I'd like them too, but I can't jinx them," he said, smiling.

Bressler's team last year awesomely got eight guys to state, but Bressler says fetching that kind of number this year will be tougher.

"We're a long shot to get that many this year. We're a young team," he said. With four seniors, that means the rest are underclassmen. Something says, though, that Bressler, who has had sons compete at state and one son, Kyle, won it all. Now Kyle wrestles well at Oregon State, with a current above .500 record, can do it, or at least get mighty close to it.