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In a game of inches, the Sussex Central High School wrestling team came up a bit short.

On Wednesday night, Feb. 3, 1999, Central's hopes for a Henlopen Conference Northern Division dual-meet title were dashed in a 31-20 loss to fifth-ranked Caesar Rodney before a packed house in Camden.

By dealing the Golden Knights their first loss of the season, undefeated CR all but clinched its fourth consecutive division title and extended its regular season winning streak to 52 straight meets.

The Riders (10-0 conference, 11-0 overall) dominated the lower weight classes in a meet that featured plenty of bizarre plot twists and seven matches decided by two points or less. By losing five of the first six matches, fourth-ranked Central put itself in an early hole from which it could not recover.

"It was a dogfight. It's disappointing for me. We worked hard, the whole team," Central coach Phil Shultie said. "When you have this type of match, you can't have any letdowns and we had a couple tonight. I knew it would be a close match. I knew we had to win like three out of the first four to have a shot."

After a victory by 103-pounder James Leyh to open the meet, Central lost the next five matches and fell into a 19-3 hole. The Knights (9-1, 9-1) would trail 28-9 before making a late charge that eventually came up short.

Leyh notched a hard-fought 5-3 win over Chris Parker to give Central an early lead but CR's Mike Scaffedi followed with a controversial 4-3 victory over Steve Swain at 112. Swain appeared to score a late takedown at the buzzer but the referee ruled time had expired.

CR then won a pair of hotly-contested matches, with Darnell Custis defeating Cory Strohmeyer 8-7 at 119 and Nick Andrews edging Joey Davis 6-4 at 125. When James Russial (130) followed with a 12-3 major decision over Jordan Lowe, the Riders had a 13-3 lead.

"The thing that hurt us was 112 and 125. We lost both close matches there," Shultie said. "We had to win it downstairs."

The wildest match of the evening, and perhaps the turning point of the meet, came at 135 pounds. By racking up a total of 12 back points, Central's Teddy Thompson built a commanding 18-7 lead over CR's Dwayne Graham midway through the third period. Graham, however, scored a late reversal and pinned Thompson with just 18 seconds remaining, sending the capacity crowd into a frenzy.

Thompson suffered an apparent rib injury while being pinned and remained down for several minutes afterwards.

"He's been injured the last couple weeks and he's a competitor. You can't take anything from him. He gave every ounce that he had," Shultie said of Thompson. "He got in a bad position and he hurt himself again."

Central's Anthony Andrews (140) pinned Brian Palmer to pull the Knights within 19-9 but CR's Kyle Griffith followed with a narrow 2-1 win over Joey Walls at 145 and Justin Palmer (152) pinned Jason Riddle at the 3:07 mark to give the Riders a commanding 28-9 advantage.

The Knights kept their slim hopes alive when Deon Brunskill scored a takedown with five seconds remaining to defeat Brain Rigby 10-8 at 160 and Kurt Wolfe (171) notched a 17-2 technical fall over Tony Harris.

But CR clinched the victory when Bill Morris whipped Central's Jake Booth 9-3 at 189, giving the Riders an insurmountable 31-17 lead. The meet ended with Central's Jerone Nocks defeating Justin Yelverton 5-3 in the heavyweight division.

The teams could meet again if, as expected, Central receives an at-large berth into the state Division I dual meet tournament Feb. 17 at Delaware State University. By winning the North, CR receives an automatic bid.

Shultie welcomed such a rematch. "You take a few matches here and there and it's a different score. I'm looking forward to it," he said.