Kevin Fowler called it a perfect match at the end of a perfect tournament.

But for the second straight season, a Warrenton wrestler gave up a point after being called for stalling in the championship match.

And for the second straight season, a Warrenton wrestler left Columbia with a second-place medal.

“This was definitely a tough one,” Fowler said after Jerrett Villinger’s 3-1 overtime loss to Andrew Gamble of Belton. “We wrestled a pretty-much perfect tournament and that was a perfect match for him, but we had to get the takedown in overtime. You have to score the takedown. It was a good battle, and we thought it was going to be a one-takedown match. You just have to score there.”

Gamble took a 1-0 lead in the second period when Villinger was called for stalling, much to the surprise of the Warrenton coaches.

Gamble was hit with a stalling call in the second period to even the match at 1-1, but Fowler thought it wasn’t his only failure to engage.

“Well, we got a stall call back in the second period, but in the third we attacked him 10-1, and he swallowed his whistle,” Fowler said. “And nobody wants a stall call to decide a state title match. But guess what? Last year we (Jacob Null) got hit with a stall call in the title match. That kid was stalling, call it, and that will force action. But it’s not the ref’s fault; we have to score a takedown. We weren’t better this match, and we have to learn to take that guy out early.”

Villinger was surprised by the call as well.

“It could have gone either way,” he said. “It’s not like he was doing something that I wasn’t. But he’s one of the top opponents in the state, and he’s just a solid wrestler. We worked all day on trying to go to both legs and keep moving, and I just came up a little short.”

Gamble scored two points on an escape with eight seconds left in overtime, and Villinger finished his season 50-3.

“We knew it was going to be a really close match,” Fowler said. “In the first match against him (Harrisonville Tournament in December), we gave up a takedown early and that kind of put us in a different mindset trying to catch up on points. It was 9-3 officially, but it was 5-3 with about 10 seconds left and we tried to throw him, so we gave up four. So it was closer in the final match.”

Despite Fowler’s insistence on more consistent officiating, his words Saturday night were eerily similar to a year ago following Null’s loss.

“The bottom line is that you have to pretend you’re down every match 0-2,” he said Saturday. “You can’t let an official have an effect on a match.

“You’ve got to take the official out of it,” he said last season. “You have to go into every match like you’re down 2-0 and can’t let an official decide a match.”

Moments after stepping off the second-place spot on the podium, Villinger was able to reflect on his best season to date.

“Going undefeated in duals was great, and I thought I improved all year,” he said. “Getting to the finals was icing on the cake.”

And as a junior, it was easy for Villinger to think about next year and a possible rematch with Belton, who is also a junior.

Fowler was less eager to think about 2019 so quickly.

“You hate to tell kids this, but everyone worries about next year, and sometimes you don’t get next year,” he said. “This is your opportunity right now. Go seize the moment because you don’t know about next year. Dan Filipek didn’t get here his senior year, so just because you’re here now and you have more years ahead of you, doesn’t mean it’s going to be there. But yes, anytime you have a returning finalist, you’re excited because you know you’ll have a quality contributor.”

When the 2018-19 Warrenton wrestling team meets for its first practice next fall, Villinger will be one of the title favorites in Class 3, and he could potentially end a state title drought since J.J. Filipek’s championship in 2013.

“The last five final matches have been pretty dang tough,” Fowler said. “We had a couple overtime losses in there and a one-point loss, so they’re all dang tough to be honest. He wrestled a returning state champ, so it wasn’t like he was wrestling a nobody, but these finals losses have gotten old in a dang hurry.”