Nashua South's Alex Rochette pins Bishop Guertin's Dominic Stamp at 150 pounds during the dual meet season opener for both teams Wednesday night at South. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Bishop Guertin coach Dan Warshafsky had mixed feelings on Wednesday night.

Warshafsky worked with wrestlers on the Cards’ opening night opponent, Nashua South, in his job coaching at the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua. Especially South standout Benny Byrne, who won a hotly contested match at 175 pounds over Jack Foster by a 6-4 decision. It was key in South’s 38-30 Opening Night win over the Cards at South.

“I really liked that match with Benny and Jack,” Warshafsky said. “They both needed that match (to compete). They’re both contending for state titles, we love both families. … I coached Benny at the Boys Club, I wrote a recommendation for Benny, and now I’m coaching against him, it’s a little weird. But Jack’s my guy.”

But the Panthers had a lot of guys that their coach was proud of last night.

“We were pretty happy about tonight,” Panthers coach Tony Spero said. “We had a few swing matches we weren’t sure about and we managed to win enough of them to get the meet.”

One of those was at 120, where Aarush Dutta pinned BG’s Lucas Wilson for South’s first points of the match, evening things at 6, and Ares Provance at 190, who got a 15-0 major decision over BG’s Ayla Saeturn. It was Provance’s first-ever match.

“We had a few other kids who went out there for their first varsity matches,” Spero said. “So this was good.”

BG had a 6-0 lead as Wes Steinruck pinned South’s Elijah Phillips. The Cards evened things at 12 as Austin Steinruck pinned South’s Noah Beasley at 132.

There were forfeits and no contests as only eight matches were actually competed. The forfeits cost Guertin 18 points, while South had one for a giveaway of six.

“Hopefully we get our numbers up,” Warshafsky said. “But this year, unfortunately, our numbers are low and we’re going to have a lot of forfeits. Until we can fill that up, it is what it is.”

The Cards’ James Algeo pinned South’s Arihant Gadari at 138, but a BG forfeit at 144 evened things at 18. The see-saw continued as Panther Alex Rochette pinned BG’s Dominic Stamp at 150, but South’s Sulalman Mohamed Ismail returned the favor, pinning BG’s Peter Cerrato at 157. Then came the Foster-Byrne match.

Spero graciously bumped Byrne up two weight classes so he could wrestle Foster at 175.

“He did pretty well,” Spero said of Byrne. “I would like to see his conditioning get up there a little bit better, but it’s early in the season.”

Bishop Guertin’s Jack Foster, left, and South’s Benny Byrne staged quite a battle at 175 pounds on Wednesday night. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

The Byrne-Foster match was a war. Byrne dominated early, leading 6-2, but Foster got a reversal and closed the gap but Byrne pulled through, getting the three points for a 27-24 South lead, a lead the Panthers never lost.

“I think (Foster) froze up a little bit at the beginning but he opened up and came back,” Warshafsky said. “I think once our gas tank gets a little heavier, we win that match.”

But the Panthers were a little deeper.

“It feels good to get a home opener and a win,” Spero said. “I’m happy with the result.”

“I liked how we were the more aggressive team, and pushed the pace,” Warshafsky said. “Sometimes you don’t win all of ’em. They wrestled well, that’s all we can ask.”