Two fledgling college wrestling programs took to the mat on Wednesday night at Harris Court in Laurinburg, and it was Darton, a less experienced and certainly more road weary team, that took a 27-12 victory over St. Andrews, dropping the Knights to 1-11 on the season.

Darton is a National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) program from Albany, Ga. that is in its inaugural season. The Cavaliers, with their coach Josh Watts as the driver, piled into a van and made the seven-hour trip to Laurinburg, arriving two and a half hours before Wednesday's match began.

St. Andrews was forced to forfeit at three weight classes (174, 197 and heavyweight), and Darton was missing bodies at 184 and 197. That equaled a six-point swing in favor of Darton, as St. Andrews got six points at 184, the Cavaliers got 12 points at 174 and 285, and there was a double forfeit at 197.

St. Andrews and Darton wrestled at six weight classes, and the Knights were 2-4 there.

St. Andrews' Matt Fletcher (8-10) fell behind 9-0 against Sam Spradlin in the 125-pound match; Fletcher got an escape and a takedown late in the third period, but dropped a 9-3 decision that gave the Cavs a 3-0 lead.

Casey Gashaw won an 11-6 decision over Korey Pitts at 133 to help SAPC tie the match at 3-3. Gashaw went up 11-1 in the second period when he made a quick spin move from a crouched position and hit Pitts at the knees for a takedown.

Gashaw is 9-10 this season, and SAPC head coach Joe Baranik has been expecting more from the Laurinburg native.

"On my feet, I haven't been wrestling too good," said Gashaw. "I've got pretty much all the mat stuff down, just on my feet, I'm not as strong ... That's why I wrestled more on my feet tonight."

Gashaw said he does not mind Baranik's high expectations of him.

"They told me at the beginning of the year they weren't going to be satisfied, no matter what I did," said Gashaw. "They're always going to want more out of me."

St. Andrews' Brad McKee (2-9) did an admirable job while wrestling 41 pounds above his weight against a 174-pounder from UNC-Pembroke last week. On Wednesday, McKee was bumped up to 141 — eight pounds over his weight — but struggled against Darton's Nathan Allen, falling behind 11-0 before being pinned with 1:12 remaining in the third period.

The Knights fell behind 12-3 when Scotland High School product Troy Baranik (1-16) lost a 16-9 decision to Darton's Darius Pittman. Baranik battled hard in what was an exciting match, and he rallied from 4-1 down to tie Pittman at 4-all at the end of the first period.

Baranik entered the third period down 8-5, and was outscored 8-3 in the final two minutes.

Greg Todd (11-9) helped the Knights cut the deficit to 12-6 with a 7-6 decision win over DeMarcus Allen at 157 pounds.

Mike Frazzita (1-12) lost a tough 7-4 decision to Darton's Colby Booth at 165 pounds. The loss in the final match of the evening left the Knights trailing 15-6.

The Cavaliers had lost 49-4 to Newberry (ranked No. 1 in the NCAA Division II East Region) last week. Baranik thought this was a match his team could win coming in, but he felt the Knights needed wins by pin fall at 133 and 157, and he was hoping to get a win from Troy Baranik or Mike Frazzita.

"Casey (Gashaw) did a good job. He had the kid in a cradle, and we were hoping he could get a pin for us," said Baranik. "Troy wrestled good for two periods, but Troy had a bad third period.

"We needed six from Greg, we needed six from Casey, but it didn't work out. We knew they were forfeiting two weight classes, so that helped, but the three forfeits for us hurt, of course."

St. Andrews wrestles at Limestone today at 7 p.m.