APEX — The Athens Drive wrestling team put away Middle Creek early to win 49-21 in a Tri-Nine Conference match on Wednesday night.

The Jaguars (7-2, 2-1) jumped out to a 34-0 lead after the first seven weight classes, using four pins, one major decision and a forfeit to do so.

In all, five Athens wrestlers recorded pins, the fastest being Jeff Dion's win over Alex Loverde. Dion needed just 41 seconds to win by fall.

Dion was one of three Athens seniors to record pins. The Jags have just four seniors on this year's team. Ryan Goodchild used just 1:15 to pin Joey White at 130, while Dan Martin pinned Patrick Sternet at the 4:42 mark in the 140-pound class.

"We wrestled pretty tough tonight. It's still the beginning of the season and I feel like there's some things we need to work on, but overall I've got to be happy with a win," Athens coach Mike Wood said. "Our seniors have had to step up and get pins and that's how we've won a lot of our matches."

Goodchild was moved up to 130 from his usual 125-pound class before the match. Wood said he was impressed with the way the senior responded with a pin.

"I expected to wrestle 125," Goodchild said. "Usually I'd be pretty worried ... [but] I wasn't too scared. I just got in the zone and then you go from there."

Athens also got pins from Kevin Chou, who won by fall in a 145-pound match at 1:47 over Grant Bledsoe, and Miles Quimby, who needed just 1:56 to win by fall at 189 over Brandon Thompson.

The Jags' Shane Goodchild (112 pounds) won an 11-6 minor decision over Alex Battaglia while Ashton Rodgers (152) won 13-4 over Seth Hamprey.

Forfeits on both sides made the match go by quickly. Both teams forfeited at 125-pounds to start the match, which kept the score at 0-0. Middle Creek also forfeited at 160 and heavyweight, while Athens forfeited 215 and 103.

For Middle Creek, which dropped to 0-3 on the season and in the conference, it was another learning experience for the young team. No Mustangs wrestler has more than three years of experience.

"The biggest problem we have is we're all freshmen and sophomores," Middle Creek coach Butch Stiles said. "Our program is still trying to develop and trying to get a foothold."

While the team's loss was disappointing, Stiles said there were some positives from the match that his team can build on.

The Mustangs' Tyler Templin at 171 won by pin at 1:31 over Kendall Burns, giving the Mustangs their first points of the night. Zach Branar at 119 ended the night with a thrilling 8-7 win over Drew Gintis.

They were two of the teams' four winners, and the only ones to do so without a forfeit.

"We had a couple of close matches we could have possibly got and changed things," Stiles said.

"You've got to get success to build on that success."