Senior Zach Schall now stands alone as the only unbeaten member of the Warrenton wrestling team. The Warriors were met with heavy competition at the St. Charles Invitational on Friday and Saturday. Enough grapplers were able to wrestle their way back into the finals to guide Warrenton to a second-place finish. The Warriors finished with 161 points, behind tournament champion Centralia who recorded 184 points, competing in five title bouts. "This week we kind of earned (our points) through the back side, since we only had two in the finals," said Coach Kevin Fowler. "In a bigger tournament, that's the way it's going to be. We battled back after wrestleback rounds and made up a lot of points. I was proud of our guys." Just two Warriors competed for first place. Schall was the only one to finish the day unscathed, defeating Zach Surque of Poplar with a 10-2 major decision for the 119-pound title. Schall improved to 26-0, winning the St. Charles Tournament for the second consecutive year. Last winter he pinned Surque in the opening seconds of the first period. On Saturday, Schall was forced to go a full three periods against Surque, who possessed outstanding upper body strength. "He's stronger than me upper body wise," said Schall. "So, I just tried to stay away from the throws and not get pinned. He kept staying low and eventually I got underneath and took a shot. I was able to finally get to his legs to take him down and reverse a couple times." Schall worked his way through the bracket with relative ease. Even his title bout didn't have the usual appeal of a finals match. "It was kind of a workman type effort," said Fowler. "The match wasn't very exciting but you look up at the end and it's a major (decision). That kid is probably one of the better kids in the state." Junior Will Filipek was the only other Warrenton wrestler to vie for a title. He fell short, losing a 9-5 decision against Haylon Jacobs of Mexico in the 215-pound championship. "That guy really worked his offense on his feet and kind of neutralized Will's best asset in his strength," said Fowler. "He kept attacking Will's legs. I think Will did a decent job of staying in the match. He probably needs to force his offense a little better." It was just Filipek's second loss of the season. He is now 23-2. Although the Warriors had limited representation in the finals, they rebounded to score points in the third-, fifth- and seventh-place matches. Previously unbeaten senior Jake DeClue was upended early in the tournament but climbed his way through wrestlebacks to take third place in the 152-pound class. "Jake came back and blew through his consolation matches and showed what he's made of," said Fowler. "Justin Greene had a good tournament and scored all kinds of bonus points for us. I think everybody on our team but one or two were scoring points for us late in the day." Junior Reece Berry was met with a similar fate. He was able to rally back and finish fifth in the heavyweight division. Junior Sean Daven also battled his way through wrestlebacks to overcome an opponent who previously had his number. Daven took down Eryc Alexander of University City in the 125-pound bout. "Sean finally beat a kid he'd lost to three times for third place," said Fowler. Freshman Ryan Sherry had one of his better tournaments of the season, finishing third with a decision win over 103-pound competitor Cameron Cox of Harpeth. "Ryan (Sherry) stepped up and had a great tournament to beat a couple of seeded wrestlers," said Fowler. "He had one letdown match, but after that he was one of the kids that worked hard on the backside that stepped up." In addition, Anthony Dewey, Cameron Roberts and Justin Greene also advanced to the final round of matches.