HOLLY SPRINGS - Holly Springs junior Ryan Fawcette knows how to be patient. He couldn't crack the starting lineup last season for the Golden Hawks, but said he worked this summer to earning a spot despite almost everyone returning to the team.

In his first conference start, Fawcette demonstrated that patience as his pin all but clinched an important 38-22 win against defending Tri-Nine Conference champ Panther Creek on Wednesday night.

Fawcette's bout -- which was the third-to-last scheduled on the night -- was tied 8-8 late in the third period as Holly Springs held a narrow lead. But the junior waited for Panther Creek's Shovan Bhatta to leave himself open, even for a split second. Fawcette took advantage of his second opportunity of the night and pinned Bhatta with just 59 seconds left in the bout.

"He was a great wrestler to begin with. I saw him opening, and we were close throughout the match, so I decided to take that opening and it ended up working," Fawcette said.

Although the Catamounts could've still won the match by a point, it would have required winning all three remaining bouts to be pins. And that was a tall task given Holly Springs standout Javon Johnson had yet to wrestle.

"That sealed it," Holly Springs coach Brandon Inge said. "Ryan's been a backup all his career and he finally earned a starting nod and he proved to guys if you work hard, your time comes."

The Golden Hawks entered the season with as many as 13 of last year's 14 starters returning. But injuries caused Holly Springs to be four starters short entering their match with Panther Creek, making the win even sweeter for Inge.

"It's a credit to Panther Creek that I feel so good about this win because they're so well-coached and have been a great program ever since they started," Inge said. "We aren't the team we'd thought we'd be in the summer just because of injuries, guys being out and being sick. I was really nervous about this match, given that they're so well-coached and they're Panther Creek -- we had never beaten them."

The match started with a 6-4 win by Panther Creek's Nischal Pant at 138-pounds, followed up by a 7-2 victory by teammate Kevin Ruiz at 145-pounds. The score was evened to 6-6 overall after Holly Springs' David Richardson came up with a third-period pin with just 1:41 left in his match.

Panther Creek's Collin Higgins put the Catamounts back up 9-6, but three straight wins in the upper weights of 170, 182 and 195 by Austin Galati (12-0), Mitch Brady (6-4) and Kylen Blanchette (pin, 1:17) moved Holly Springs up 19-9.

The Hawks' three pins in the match, compared to just one from Panther Creek, loomed large. Holly Springs (3-0, 1-0) didn't necessarily dominate bout-for-bout, winning eight of the 14 match-ups, but bonus points gave it a comfortable win.

"It comes down to pins," Panther Creek coach Jon Armfield said. "We're a really young squad, and we've got to learn how to not get put in those positions. And that stuff is fixable. It's early in the season, too. These guys have just got to learn, and sometimes it's learning the hard way."

PC's only pin came at 220-pounds, where Aaron Chan got one in the third period (4:40). Holly Springs heavyweight Chris Sauls (7-0) and 106-pounder Jacob Salzer (12-4) had Holly Springs up 26-15 before Fawcette's pivotal pin.

Fawcette wasn't rush to take much credit for his team's win.

"When I got my pin, it happened to be towards the end of our lineup," Fawcette said. "Other wrestlers like Kylen Blanchette, if he was at the end of our lineup he would've sealed it just as well as I did."

Panther Creek (4-2, 0-1) got wins from 120-pounder Nathan Allison (6-5) and 126-pounder Joe Faustyn (10-0). Holly Springs' Johnson ended the match with a pin just 20 seconds into his bout.