The points slipped away. The pins never came. In the end, the win was not to be.

The Bluffton High School wrestling team watched as their cross-bridge rivals, the Hilton Head Seahawks, celebrated a 28-27 win and a Class 3-A Lower State title on the Bobcats’ mat.

The Seahawks moved on and will meet Upper State champ Lugoff-Elgin for the state title at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in Columbia.

BHS head coach John Hollman was still in shock an hour after Wednesday’s match. He felt his team would only improve upon their 46-26 win in the region championship on Jan. 27.

“There’s no way this was supposed to end this way. There’s no loss in my life that can even compare to this,” Hollman said. “I know without a doubt that we are the better team. There was just too many things that didn’t go our way. They fought smarter tonight. “

The trouble started with the coin flip. Hilton Head won the coin flip, therefore winning the ability to send their guy out after Bluffton decided on their wrestler for each weight class. Hollman had a look of disgust as the coin was raised after the flip. (SEE CORRECTION)

“That’s 13 points right there just in working the matchups at 152 and 160. So the contingency plans started even before the first match,” the coach said.

The less-than-expected but still enthusiastic crowd came into play twice during the match. First, a pair of Hilton Head fans commandeered the Bobcat logo flag and stomped on it in the stands. The match referees spoke to the HHIHS students and issued a misconduct warning.

Then, after defending 160-pound state champ Tyler Rosenlieb was announced as the wrestler at 160, Hilton Head head coach Mike Newton decided to not forfeit the weight class.

BHS wrestlers and coaches were stunned at the move. Rosenlieb was visibly frustrated that he would not have a chance to wrestle in his first home match for BHS. He asked Hollman if he could play cheerleader and run waving hands in front of the home stands.

“I agreed to it. He wanted to do something for his team,” Hollman said. Rosenlieb ran up and down the sideline once as the 171-pound match began. Minutes later, the referees motioned to take one team point away from Bluffton for unsportsmanlike conduct. The move moved the BHS lead at the time from five points (15-10) to four (14-10).

“I have never seen that call in all my years in this sport. In a title match, you never want the refs to inject themselves into the outcome,” Hollman said. “There was nothing derogatory about it. He was robbed of his chance to perform. He wanted to have some impact, even if it was just getting the crowd behind his teammates. So this ref gives a warning for stomping on our flag, but skips the warning and goes right to taking away a point for an innocent act of supporting his team? It’s just unfathomable.”

Even with the call, the Bobcats had their first lead since Lincoln Joly started the match with a 9-5 decision and a 3-0 Bluffton lead. HHIHS’s Nic Levy tied the match with a 9-4 decision over Josh Wetmore at 130.

Seth Anthony gave the ?Hawks their first lead with an overtime takedown and a 6-4 decision over Ryan Rosenlieb at 135.

Then came two straight matches where points melted away for BHS. Danny Garcia earned a major decision over BHS’ Josh Doamaral ? turning a three-point win into a four-point victory ? with a move in the last 10 seconds of the match.

Then at 145, Braden Putich appeared on his way to a major decision over Hilton Head’s Quinn Williams-McClure with a 10-1 lead after two periods. Williams-McClure stopped that from happening, as the 10-3 win saved the Seahawks another point.

“Those are points we just can’t give away. The whole team has been so strong in knowing to play to the clock and the situation all year. You have to get points when they’re there and save points when you can,” Hollman said.

The Bobcats won the first of the chess moves of the night. C.J. Johnson pulled off an upset against Hilton Head’s Chad Dimmock with a 6-4 decision to pull BHS to within one point, 10-9. The HHIHS forfeit gave the ?Cats their second lead of the night.

Ray Harrington outpointed BHS’ Manuel Lopez at 171 to close the BHS lead to 14-13.

Then came the pivotal moment of the match, both on the scoreboard and in the momentum department. Newton sent out scout-team 189-pounder Nick Bautista. The sophomore hadn’t seen the mat much with senior Jack Duane dominating at 189 and David Beck scoring well at 215. Newton took a gamble and sent Bautista at 189, Duane at 215 and Beck at 285.

The rust showed at first as Dean took a 7-0 lead midway through the second period. But Bautista rallied to close the gap to 7-5 at the end of the second and scored the only three points of the final period for a stunning 8-7 win that gave the visitors a 16-14 lead.

As Bautista erupted in joy, the win swung the odds in Hilton Head’s favor. Duane secured the win with the only pin of the night over David Lopez at 215.

Phillip Scott kept the ?Cats mathematically alive with an 8-2 win over Beck at 285 that shrunk the Hilton Head lead to 22-17.

Colin Placke nearly turned an 11-0 deficit into a pin win with a surprise rally in the second period. But Nick Tennison survived the rush and scored a tech-fall win at 103.

Bluffton’s Austin Farmer answered with five points of his own with a tech fall at 112, but with Hilton Head avoiding the pin meant the match was theirs.

“Beck has wrestled 20-plus heavyweights this year, so that was huge for Phillip. Colin saved us a point and Austin fought his heart out to get us those five points,” Hollman said of his trio. (SEE CORRECTION)

Newton forfeited 119 to force a 27-27 tie. The first tiebreaker, misconducts, meant a Hilton Head win.

“We had guys deliver for their team and their school and guys who didn’t. But that point is on me, not on Tyler,” Hollman said. “You can have an individual state champion every year. The chance to be a team champion comes along so rarely. Our motto was ?Believe it now. Believe in now.’ We just didn’t own the now. In the past, we’ve lost but we got beat. This time, we gave it away.”

CLASS 3-A LOWER STATE WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPS

HILTON HEAD 28, BLUFFTON 27

The match was a double-digit point swing from the Bobcats’ 46-26 win in the region championship two weeks ago. Here’s a look at how the Seahawks pulled off a 19-point swing in two weeks.

103: Wednesday, HH tech fall, 5 points; Jan. 27, HH decision, 3 points

Point swing: HH +2

112: Weds., BHS tech fall, 5 pts.; Jan. 27, BHS major decision, 4 pts.

Point swing: HH +1

119: Weds., BHS forfeit, 6 pts.; Jan. 27, BHS pin, 6 pts.

Point swing: HH +1

125: Weds., BHS decision, 3 pts.; Jan. 27, HH major decision, 4 pts.

Point swing: BHS +6

130: Weds., HH decision, 3 pts.; Jan. 27, BHS pin, 6 pts.

Point swing: HHS +3

135: Weds., HH decision, 3 pts.; Jan. 27, HH tech fall, 5 pts.

Point swing: HH +1

140: Weds., HH major decision, 4 pts.; Jan. 27, HH major decision, 4 pts.

Point swing: HH +1

145: Weds., BHS decision, 3 pts.; Jan. 27, BHS pin, 6 pts.

Point swing: HH +4

152: Weds., BHS decision, 3 pts.; Jan. 27, BHS pin, 6 pts.

Point swing: HH +7

160: Weds., BHS forfeit, 6 pts.; Jan. 27, HHS decision, 3 pts.

Point swing: BHS +2

171: Weds., HH decision, 3 pts.; Jan. 27, BHS win by DQ, 6 pts.

Point swing: HH +7

189: Weds., HH decision, 3 pts.; Jan. 27, HH pin, 6 pts.

Point swing: HH +4

215: Weds., HH pin, 6 pts.; Jan. 27, BHS win by DQ, 6 pts.

Point swing: HH +16

285: Weds., BHS decision, 3 pts.; Jan. 27, BHS forfeit, 6 pts.

Point swing: HH +19

Correction: (February 13) Two clarifications from Friday’s article on BHS wrestling: The coin flip at the beginning of the match gives the coach the choice of deciding who goes to the mat first in either the odd or even matches. Austin Farmer scored a four-point major decision at 112 pounds and coach John Hollman was making reference to the four points that Farmer scored for the team.