MOULTRIE — With their team down 33-24 and just two matches remaining in a match against Tift County’s Eighth Street Middle School on Friday at the Pineland gymnasium, Colquitt County middle school wrestlers Vandell Gordon and Chris Walsh reminded coach Travis Torbert that all the team needed was two pins to get a victory.

The two young Packers then went out and did just that.

Gordon got a pin in the next-to-last match to pull the middle school Packers to within three points.

That left the match up to Walsh, who already had a pin earlier in the afternoon against Lowndes.

If Walsh won by decision, the Packers and Blue Devils would have finished tied.

And it looked dim for the Packers when Walsh trailed 4-0 after two periods.

But he came through with a pin in the third period to give the Packers a big, come-from-behind 36-33 victory.

“That was really good for the kids, especially coming down to the last match,” said Torbert.

The Packers and Blue Devils each split their matches in the three-way meet.

Lowndes had little trouble beating the Packers 66-9 in the afternoon’s first match.

Bryce Giddens, one of the team’s 12 sixth-graders, got three points for the Packers with a decision.

Walsh got a pin in the final match.

That win and the one against Tift County raise his season record to 9-0.

Lowndes also defeated Tift County 66-12.

Against Tift County, Colquitt County also got pins from Coty Thomas, Juan DeLeon and Taylor Huite

Sam Clements and Dontavious Williams won by decision.

This is just the second full season of middle school wrestling in Colquitt County. The first team was formed in January the year before and had just a part of one season.

The team has 28 wrestlers, nearly half of whom are sixth-graders.

“We just need to give them mat time,” said Torbert, who has been coaching the team since its inception. “They just need to wrestle.”