With the dual tied 21-21, it all came down to one match, a heavyweight tilt between Briar Cliff's Matt Solomon and Northwestern's Brad Hughes. Match went back and forth, but Hughes won the final match by fall (1:33) and NAIA No. 19 Northwestern won the dual, 27-21.
Briar Cliff got pins from Josh Rogers at 133 and Sammy Johnson at 165. Rogers pinned Pedro Ruiz at the 3:30 mark, while Johnson pinned Aaron Ruskell, 1:38 into the match. Ethan Johnson, Ben Taylor and Damien Eichelberger all earned decisions for the Chargers. Johnson defeated Nathan Manfull, 7-1, at 141, while Taylor defeated Brian Heiberger, 7-4, at 157. Eichelberger downed Stanley Fleming III, 3-2, in the 197-pound match. Northwestern benefited from forfeit wins at 125 (Angelo Diego Quintana) and 174 (Luke Evjen). They registered wins by fall at 184 (David Carter pinned Cody Osburn in 1:54) and heavyweight. The Red Raiders' other win of the night was a 3-2 decision by Nate Halpin in a 157-pound match against Zack Mullins.
The Chargers, who are now 0-2 in duals, will host the Briar Cliff Open, Saturday, at the Newman Flanagan Center. Wrestling is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Northwestern improved to 5-5 on the season in duals and are scheduled to compete in Saturday's BCU Open.