Chris Matthews and the rest of his Exeter wrestling teammates were told how close Tuesday's District 3 Class 3A quarterfinal match with Big Spring could be.

Although the Eagles were the second-seeded team in the 16-team tournament and wrestling at home, coach Jon Rugg figured the outcome could be decided by one or two bouts.

"Coach had us winning by six points," said Exeter senior Austin DeSanto. "We kind of blew them out of the water. We just kept going; guys stepped up."

By the time it was over, Exeter routed No. 7 Big Spring 48-16 to advance to the semifinals of the District 3 Team Tournament for the fourth straight year.

In the semifinals Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at Spring Grove, Exeter will face No. 11 Shippensburg (11-2), which knocked off No. 6 Dallastown and third-seeded Spring Grove to reach the semifinals for the first time.

The Eagles (20-1) won eight straight bouts Tuesday to defeat the Bulldogs (12-4) for their second lopsided victory of the night. In the first round, Exeter rolled to a 51-19 victory over No. 15 South Western.

"When we look at things we tend to be very conservative, and we thought it could be close," Rugg said. "Even though we've felt that way with some matches, our kids have been wrestling, really, really well."

On the mat, the Eagles certainly didn't take the conservative approach.

Matthews was a case in point. After returning from a lenghty absence less than a week ago, Matthews scored a fall in the win over South Western (15-5) before doing his best impression of DeSanto, racking up a first-period technical fall in the win over Big Spring.

Matthews scored 20 points in two minutes to earn his team five points.

"That was the first time I ever tech falled someone," Matthews said. "As soon as we got all those points rolling I just went off. It felt good."

DeSanto has made a habit of scoring technical falls, many in the first period. He followed Matthews' performance by racking up 20 points in 1:46 to earn his 37th win of the season without a loss.

After winning the first five bouts against South Western in the first round, the Eagles got off to a disappointing start against Big Spring. Kyle Brobst scored a takedown with two seconds left to pull out a 2-1 win over Exeter's Tyler Borton at 160 pounds.

But senior Tyler Bagoly prevented Big Spring from building on the victory. Bagoly, one of four Exeter wrestlers with more than 100 career wins, scored a technical fall over Britain Shields to give Exeter a 5-3 lead.

The rest of this news article can be read on the Reading Eagle....