For the Hoke County fans that made the trip to Scotland Wednesday night, the commute there lasted longer than the entire match.

The Scots made sure that their trek back to Raeford would not be a happy one.

In a match that took just 30 minutes to complete, Scotland benefited from five forfeits as they improved to 2-1 in Southeastern Conference with a 46-36 win over the Bucks.

The match had a combined eight forfeits between the two squads.

“I knew that tonight was going to be one of those matches where they were going to give up some forfeits, but so were we,” Scotland coach Joel McCanna said. “We had some matchup issues and it was evident in the 140 and 145-pound matches because we could’ve had a match at 140 but he (Hoke’s coach) moved his guy up to 145, so we were basically swapping points.”

Hoke, who only had nine eligible wrestlers, started off the night on an encouraging note when Colby Porter used some crafty moves to take down Deshawn Williams. Porter was able to get the pin on Williams with 21 seconds left in the first period and gave the Bucks an early 6-0 lead.

The Scots gained the upper hand when Zak Watts (112), Kenneth McCoy (119), and Bradley Stewart (125) all won their matches courtesy of a forfeit due in part to Hoke not having wrestlers for those respective weight classes.

“We were definitely understaffed tonight due to players suffering from various injuries and illnesses or having prior obligations,” said Bucks coach Vernon Walworth. “Despite that, the boys that went out tonight and did a great job considering the circumstances.”

Following those forfeits, Scotland’s Ben Ewald wrestled Austin Hargrove in the 130-pound division and made short work of him. Ewald managed to get the pin in 18 seconds to give the Scots a commanding 24-6 lead and made up for the poor showing he had in the past tournament.

“In the last tournament I went to, I was just out of wack. I didn’t have my mind in the game and I got slaughtered and torn apart as a result,” Ewald said of the quick pin. “I had a score to settle out there, so I had to get my head together.”

Dustin Chavis and Josh Kerstein had a battle going on in the 135-pound match as it was a back-and-forth affair before Chavis dominated the final two periods, but was unable to get the pin. Chavis would get the win by decision, 11-3.

Nick Kees picked up a win for the Scots in the 140-pound division by forfeit before Hoke’s Brey Cooper returned the favor by picking up a win for his squad via forfeit.

Scotland’s Tyler Graves and the Buck’s Alijah Saffore had a 25-second lock-up of the arms before Graves worked quick and got the pin with 25 seconds left in the first period for a 40-12 Scots lead. Rommel Andre got the win for Hoke in the 160-pound weight division, pinning Scotland’s Deon Johnson.

The Bucks cut the lead to 40-24 on a win by forfeit in the 171-pound match by Greg Allbrooks.

“It definitely feels good to get a win at home,” said McCanna on the team winning their first home match of the year. “Anytime you can get a conference win is great and it gives us some confidence going into our conference match with Lumberton next week.”

Scotland’s Rakeem “Red” Covington controlled the lower body of Keshawn Mclean in their 189-pound bout with McLean trying to get some distance but to no avail as the sophomore added pressure to his opponent and got the pin with under ten seconds left in the second period.

Hoke’s Damien Taylor took charge quickly in his match with Davis Jones in the 215-pound division and got the pin in 27 seconds for the final match of the night.

With the win, the Scots improve to 4-6 overall and will compete in the Cary Duals at Cary High School this Saturday.