LIBERTY — All the West-Oak High School wrestling team has asked for this season is a chance to be successful, which was a lot to ask earlier in the season.

The Warriors struggled early in region play due to injuries, but have gotten hot at the right time as the regular season wound down and the postseason approached.

Now, following a strong performance in a loss to Walhalla and at the Skyline AA individual tournament last week, the Warriors got the playoffs started on the right foot with a 48-27 first-round win on the road against Liberty on Wednesday night.

To show how far the Warriors have come as the season has progressed, one needs to look no further than the last time they met up with the Red Devils.

Earlier this month when they traveled to Liberty, the Warriors were without seven of their starters in a humbling 50-28 loss.

With his starting lineup once again intact, West-Oak head coach Jeff Jordan felt good about his team opening up the playoffs with a victory.

“I felt like we could win,” he said. “We’ve been wrestling real well the last couple of weeks, and I just felt like we had some pretty good matchups.”

West-Oak’s Chris Mathis got the evening started off with a win at the 103 weight class, then two-time state champion Eric Rholetter earned a technical fall with a 19-2 win three matches later.

Joseph Winkler then won by pin in the following match, but Liberty’s Karahn Washington earned a victory at the 135 weight class to tie the score up at 15-15.

The Warriors then took control of the match, with Hashim Mefleh, John Hunnicutt and Phillip Kern notching three consecutive pins for the Warriors, followed by another win by Neil Bolling to take a commanding 36-15 advantage.

“We wrestled well and it was a huge turning point right there,” Jordan said.

Kevin Sutton and Ben Blackwell notched consecutive pins for the Warriors at the 189 and 215 weight classes, respectively, to close out the scoring for West-Oak.

With their win, the Warriors have a big task looming on Saturday when they will travel to top-seeded Ninety-Six for the second round of the playoffs.

Despite the big win, Jordan was adamant that his team has a lot of work to do if it intends to knock off the Upstate’s top program.

“We still lost a lot of matches by pin tonight which we have to cut out to have any chance against Ninety Six,” he said. “The kids are going to have to step it up, because we’ll have to have another night like we did against Walhalla where everything falls our way.”

But with a healthy group of kids heading to Ninety Six, Jordan said his Warriors will their shot at pulling at the upset, which is something that couldn’t have been done a month ago.

“We’re going in there with a chance to win,” he said. “All we ask for is a chance, and that’s all we need.”

West-Oak 48, Liberty 27

103 — Mathis (W) major dec. Merrifield

112 — Gegenheimer (L) pinned J. Tannery, 4:39

119 — J. Caddell (L) pinned M. Tannery, 5:45

125 — Rholetter (W) tech. fall Bobby, 19-2

130 — Winkler (W) pinned Clark, 3:38

135 — Washington (L) minor dec. Bower, 7-2

140 — Mefleh (W) pinned Ricceteili, 3:12

145 — Hunnicutt (W) pinned Clayton, 1:26

152 — Kern (W) pinned George, 1:51

160 — Bolling (W) minor dec. G. Caddell, 8-4

171 — Taylor (L) pinned Addis, 5:08

189 — Sutton (W) pinned Williams, 2:55

215 — Blackwell (W) pinned Edwards, 5:27

Hwt — Valentine (L) pinned Cox, 0:33